{
"data": {
"id": 146110,
"accession_number": "1971.297",
"share_license_status": "CC0",
"tombstone": "Figure Pair (asye usu), late 1800s\u2013early 1900s. Africa, West Africa, C\u00f4te d\u2019Ivoire, Baule-style carver. Wood, resin, glass beads, plant fiber, and metal; part 1: 49.5 x 9.1 x 13 cm (19 1/2 x 3 9/16 x 5 1/8 in.); part 2: 47.7 x 10 x 11 cm (18 3/4 x 3 15/16 x 4 5/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of Katherine C. White, 1971.297",
"current_location": "108A African",
"title": "Figure Pair (asye usu)",
"creation_date": "late 1800s\u2013early 1900s",
"creation_date_earliest": 1880,
"creation_date_latest": 1935,
"artists_tags": [],
"culture": [
"Africa, West Africa, C\u00f4te d\u2019Ivoire, Baule-style carver"
],
"technique": "Wood, resin, glass beads, plant fiber, and metal",
"support_materials": [],
"department": "African Art",
"collection": "African Art",
"type": "Sculpture",
"measurements": "Part 1: 49.5 x 9.1 x 13 cm (19 1/2 x 3 9/16 x 5 1/8 in.); Part 2: 47.7 x 10 x 11 cm (18 3/4 x 3 15/16 x 4 5/16 in.)",
"dimensions": {
"part 1": {
"height": 0.495,
"height_inch": 19,
"height_inch_fraction": 0.5,
"width": 0.091,
"width_inch": 3,
"width_inch_fraction": 0.5625,
"depth": 0.13,
"depth_inch": 5,
"depth_inch_fraction": 0.125
},
"part 2": {
"height": 0.477,
"height_inch": 18,
"height_inch_fraction": 0.75,
"width": 0.1,
"width_inch": 3,
"width_inch_fraction": 0.9375,
"depth": 0.11,
"depth_inch": 4,
"depth_inch_fraction": 0.3125
}
},
"state_of_the_work": null,
"edition_of_the_work": null,
"copyright": null,
"inscriptions": [],
"exhibitions": {
"current": [],
"legacy": [
{
"description": "CMA 1968: \"African Tribal Images: The Katherine White Reswick Collection,\" cat. no. 85, repr.",
"opening_date": "1968-01-01T00:00:00"
},
{
"description": "CMA 1973: \"Year in Review 1972,\" CMA Bulletin LX (March, 1973), p. 107, no. 38, repr. p. 105.",
"opening_date": "1973-03-01T00:00:00"
},
{
"description": "Cleveland, Ohio: The Cleveland Museum of Art; January 7- March 9, 2003. \" Object in Focus: Male (blolo bian) and Female (blolo bla) Spirit Partner Figures, Africa, Ivory Coast, Baule, c. 1930s [wood; 1971.297.1-2] \"",
"opening_date": "2003-01-07T00:00:00"
}
]
},
"provenance": [
{
"description": "Katherine C. White (aka Katherine Merkel, Katherine Reswick)",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": "?-1971",
"sortorder": null
},
{
"description": "The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH by gift",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": "1971-",
"sortorder": 2
}
],
"find_spot": null,
"related_works": [],
"former_accession_numbers": [],
"did_you_know": "Baule artists looked to the world around them to capture contemporary ideas and ideals of beauty; these figures have hairstyles that would have been worn when the sculptures were carved.",
"description": "Baule figures carved as pairs usually represent untamed spirits of the wilderness called asye usu. These spirits may intervene in the lives of individuals by taking possession of them. If this possession does not result in madness, it can lead to the human host\u2019s becoming a diviner who can enter into a trance to reveal the causes of ailments and other misfortunes. People who feel their lives are being interrupted by the asye usu commission carvings representing idealized male and female forms whose grace and beauty in both anatomy and adornment will seduce the spirits and compel them to use the sculptures as their temporary homes.",
"external_resources": {
"wikidata": [
"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q60779160"
],
"internet_archive": [
"https://archive.org/details/clevelandart-1971.297-figure-pair-asye-usu"
]
},
"citations": [
{
"citation": "Fagg, William, and Cleveland Museum of Art. 1968. African Tribal Images; the Katherine White Reswick Collection. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, no. 85.",
"page_number": "",
"url": ""
},
{
"citation": "Cleveland Museum of Art. 1972 Year in Review. Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 60, no. 3, cat. 38.",
"page_number": "",
"url": ""
},
{
"citation": "Drewal, Henry John. African Art: A Brief Guide to the Collection. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1989, fig.15.",
"page_number": "",
"url": ""
},
{
"citation": "Petridis, Constantijn. South of the Sahara: selected works of African art. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2003.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: cat. 17, p. 64 - 65",
"url": ""
},
{
"citation": "\u201cA Walking Tour: The entire new museum wing by wing, with curators calling out a few favorite works in the collection.\u201d Cleveland Art: Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine 54, no. 1 (January/February 2014): 8-33.",
"page_number": "Reproduced and Mentioned: p. 12",
"url": "https://archive.org/details/CMAMM2014-01"
},
{
"citation": "Cleveland Museum of Art. Museum Masters: 2016-17 Companion Guide. [Cleveland, Ohio]: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2016.",
"page_number": "Mentioned and Reproduced: P. 14",
"url": ""
}
],
"url": "https://clevelandart.org/art/1971.297",
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],
"creditline": "Gift of Katherine C. White",
"image_credit": null,
"sketchfab_id": null,
"sketchfab_url": null,
"gallery_donor_text": null,
"athena_id": 146110,
"creators": [],
"legal_status": "accessioned",
"accession_date": "1971-12-11T00:00:00",
"sortable_date": 1880,
"date_added_to_oa": null,
"date_text": "late 1800s\u2013early 1900s",
"collapse_artists": false,
"on_loan": false,
"recently_acquired": false,
"record_type": "cover",
"conservation_statement": null,
"has_conservation_images": false,
"cover_accession_number": null,
"is_nazi_era_provenance": false,
"impression": null,
"alternate_titles": [
"Figure of a Spirit Husband",
"Figure Pair (Asye Usu)"
],
"is_highlight": false,
"updated_at": "2026-05-01 06:50:39.322000"
}
}