{
"data": {
"id": 170462,
"accession_number": "2012.67",
"share_license_status": "Copyrighted",
"tombstone": "Fountain of Blood, 1961. Malangatana Ngwenya (Mozambican, 1936\u20132011). Oil on fiberboard; framed: 119.4 x 147.3 cm (47 x 58 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of Dr. and Mrs. Lloyd H. Ellis Jr., 2012.67. \u00a9 Malangatana Ngwenya / DALRO, Johannesburg / ARS, NY",
"current_location": null,
"title": "Fountain of Blood",
"creation_date": "1961",
"creation_date_earliest": 1961,
"creation_date_latest": 1961,
"artists_tags": [
"African (from 1900 to present)",
"male"
],
"culture": [
"Africa, Mozambique, 20th century"
],
"technique": "oil on fiberboard",
"support_materials": [],
"department": "Contemporary Art",
"collection": "CONTEMP - Painting",
"type": "Painting",
"measurements": "Framed: 119.4 x 147.3 cm (47 x 58 in.)",
"dimensions": {
"framed": {
"height": 1.194,
"height_inch": 47,
"height_inch_fraction": 0.0,
"width": 1.473,
"width_inch": 58,
"width_inch_fraction": 0.0
}
},
"state_of_the_work": null,
"edition_of_the_work": null,
"copyright": "\u00a9 Malangatana Ngwenya / DALRO, Johannesburg / ARS, NY",
"inscriptions": [
{
"inscription": "Written in black on back of fiberboard: \"Malangatana Valente/Ngwenya/20. The fountain of bood/BALOYI/aod aloim quedis Lourenco Marques\"\r\n\r\nSigned in lower left corner of recto: \"MALANGATANA/61\"",
"inscription_translation": null,
"inscription_remark": null,
"sortorder": null
}
],
"exhibitions": {
"current": [
{
"id": 360349,
"title": "Malangatana: Mozambique Modern",
"description": "Malangatana: Mozambique Modern. The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL (organizer) (March 21-November 15, 2020) https://www.artic.edu/exhibitions/9169/malangatana-mozambique-modern.",
"opening_date": "2020-03-21T04:00:00"
},
{
"id": 393229,
"title": "Contemporary Installation",
"description": "Contemporary Installation. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer).",
"opening_date": "2021-04-12T04:00:00"
},
{
"id": 676644,
"title": "New Humans: Memories of the Future",
"description": "New Humans: Memories of the Future. New Museum, New York, NY (organizer) (March 16-July 26, 2026) https://www.newmuseum.org/exhibition/new-humans-memories-of-the-future/.",
"opening_date": "2026-03-16T04:00:00"
}
],
"legacy": []
},
"provenance": [
{
"description": "collection of the artist",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": "1961\u20131964",
"sortorder": 1
},
{
"description": "Malangatana Goenha Valente (wife of the artist), sold to Lloyd H. Ellis Jr.",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": "1964",
"sortorder": 2
},
{
"description": "Dr. and Mrs. Lloyd H. Ellis Jr., Solon, OH, gifted to the Cleveland Museum of Art",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": "2012",
"sortorder": 3
},
{
"description": "The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": "2012\u2013",
"sortorder": 4
}
],
"find_spot": null,
"related_works": [],
"former_accession_numbers": [
"25.2011"
],
"did_you_know": "Fountain of Blood was featured in the 1962 First International Congress of Culture exhibition, a major festival that showcased African art in Europe, and was one of Ngwenya's first exhibited works outside Mozambique.",
"description": "Born in Mozambique under Portuguese rule, Malangatana Ngwenya's work focuses on the clash between local Mozambican traditions and European colonialism. His highly expressive paintings often comprise dense compositions packed with religious and mythological symbolism and tormented figures\u2014a response to the violence he witnessed. In Fountain of Blood he incorporates a local myth: when one group moves into another people's land, their spirits battle. Ngwenya's pro-independence political views resulted in the artist's imprisonment for 18 months in 1964, contributing to his national reputation as a political artist and supporter of colonial resistance.",
"external_resources": {
"wikidata": [
"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q60480984"
],
"internet_archive": []
},
"citations": [
{
"citation": "Malangatana, and Ju\u0301lio Navarro. Malangatana Valente Ngwenya. translated from the Portuguese by Harriet C. McGuire, Zita C. Nunez and William P. Rougle. Dar es Salaam: Mkuki na Nyota, 2003.",
"page_number": "Mentioned pp. 9-15",
"url": ""
},
{
"citation": "Exhibitions on the occasion of the First International Congress of African Culture. Salisbury: National Gallery of Rhodesia, 1962.",
"page_number": "Reproduced, cat. 322",
"url": ""
},
{
"citation": "African-American Institute. African Art Today: Four Major Artists. New York: African-American Institute, 1974.",
"page_number": "Mentioned pp. 5-6",
"url": ""
},
{
"citation": "Morrill, Rebecca, Simon Hunegs, and Chika Okeke-Agulu. African Artists: From 1882 to Now. London: Phaidon Press Limited, 2021.",
"page_number": "",
"url": ""
},
{
"citation": "\"New Take on the New: A comprehensive reinstallation of the galleries of contemporary art offers fresh viewpoints on the art of our time.\u201d Cleveland Art: Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine 61, no. 2 (Spring 2021): 4-9.",
"page_number": "Reproduced and Mentioned: P. 8.",
"url": ""
}
],
"url": "https://clevelandart.org/art/2012.67",
"images": {},
"alternate_images": [],
"creditline": "Gift of Dr. and Mrs. Lloyd H. Ellis Jr.",
"image_credit": null,
"sketchfab_id": null,
"sketchfab_url": null,
"gallery_donor_text": null,
"athena_id": 170462,
"creators": [
{
"id": 61575,
"description": "Malangatana Ngwenya (Mozambican, 1936\u20132011)",
"extent": null,
"qualifier": null,
"role": "artist",
"biography": null,
"name_in_original_language": null,
"birth_year": "1936",
"death_year": "2011",
"use_in_caption": true,
"include_extent": false,
"weight": 1
}
],
"legal_status": "accessioned",
"accession_date": "2012-09-04T00:00:00",
"sortable_date": 1961,
"date_added_to_oa": null,
"date_text": "1961",
"collapse_artists": false,
"on_loan": false,
"recently_acquired": false,
"record_type": "object",
"conservation_statement": null,
"has_conservation_images": false,
"cover_accession_number": null,
"is_nazi_era_provenance": false,
"impression": null,
"alternate_titles": [
"The River of Blood"
],
"is_highlight": false,
"updated_at": "2026-05-01 06:53:20.968000"
}
}