{
"data": {
"id": 297929,
"accession_number": "2018.307",
"share_license_status": "Copyrighted",
"tombstone": "Untitled, c.1988\u201393. G\u00e9rard Santoni (Ivorian, 1943\u20132008). Cotton, bark cloth, and dye (indigo or kola nut); overall: 89.5 x 125.7 cm (35 1/4 x 49 1/2 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of Robert and Elizabeth Soppelsa, in memory of the artist G\u00e9rard Santoni, 2018.307. \u00a9 G\u00e9rard Santoni",
"current_location": null,
"title": "Untitled",
"creation_date": "c.1988\u201393",
"creation_date_earliest": 1983,
"creation_date_latest": 1998,
"artists_tags": [
"male"
],
"culture": [],
"technique": "Cotton, bark cloth, and dye (indigo or kola nut)",
"support_materials": [],
"department": "African Art",
"collection": "African Art",
"type": "Textile",
"measurements": "Overall: 89.5 x 125.7 cm (35 1/4 x 49 1/2 in.)",
"dimensions": {
"overall": {
"height": 0.895,
"height_inch": 35,
"height_inch_fraction": 0.25,
"width": 1.257,
"width_inch": 49,
"width_inch_fraction": 0.5
}
},
"state_of_the_work": null,
"edition_of_the_work": null,
"copyright": "\u00a9 G\u00e9rard Santoni",
"inscriptions": [],
"exhibitions": {
"current": [
{
"id": 383281,
"title": "Stories from Storage",
"description": "Stories from Storage. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 7-May 16, 2021).",
"opening_date": "2021-02-06T05:00:00"
}
],
"legacy": []
},
"provenance": [
{
"description": "G\u00e9rard Santoni, Abidjan, C\u00f4te d\u2019Ivoire, sold to Robert Soppelsa",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": null,
"sortorder": 1
},
{
"description": "Robert and Elizabeth Soppelsa, Washington DC, gifted to the Cleveland Museum of Art",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": [],
"date": "?-2018",
"sortorder": 2
},
{
"description": "The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": [],
"date": "2018\u2013",
"sortorder": 3
}
],
"find_spot": null,
"related_works": [],
"former_accession_numbers": [],
"did_you_know": "A painting by Santoni with a similar color palette of white, blue, and red appears on a 1987 stamp from C\u00f4te d'Ivoire.",
"early_education_description": null,
"artlens_description": null,
"description": "G\u00e9rard Santoni drew inspiration from the strip-woven Baule textiles he grew up around in C\u00f4te d\u2019Ivoire. Meant for wearing, these textiles were woven on narrow-band heddle looms. In contrast, Santoni used a wide Gobelin-style (French tapestry) loom to make this wall hanging, reflecting his art school training in Paris and Nice. He handcrafted some threads from bark cloth, and dyed cotton ones with indigo. In this serene abstract landscape, those latter threads recall Baule textiles and Ivorian waterways. The diagonal red dash echoes similar markings on Baule textiles, highlighting Santoni\u2019s interest in color rather than symbolic or cultural meanings. He once said that \u201cI break down the traditional weavings, \u2018decompose\u2019 them, and find something personal in their decomposition.\u201d",
"external_resources": {
"wikidata": [
"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q79874494"
],
"internet_archive": []
},
"citations": [
{
"citation": "McEvilley, Thomas. Fusion: West African Artists at the Venice Biennale. New York: Museum for African Art; Munich: Prestel, 1993.",
"page_number": null,
"url": "https://ingallslibrary.on.worldcat.org/oclc/31167850"
},
{
"citation": "Oguibe, Olu. The Culture Game. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2004.",
"page_number": "23-24",
"url": "https://faculty.risd.edu/bcampbel/readingsforweek11-2.pdf"
},
{
"citation": "Milbourne, Karen. \u201cNational Museum of African Art Curator Karen Milbourne talks about the power of water on this #EarthDay2018.\u201d Smithsonian Museum of African Art.",
"page_number": null,
"url": "https://africa.si.edu/national-museum-of-african-art-curator-karen-milbourne-talks-about-the-power-of-water-on-this-earthday2018/"
},
{
"citation": "Windmuller-Luna, Kristen. \u201cThreads across Time: African Textiles, 500-1993.\u201d Cleveland Art: Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine 61, no. 1 (Winter 2021): 13.",
"page_number": "Reproduced and Mentioned: P. 13.",
"url": ""
}
],
"url": "https://clevelandart.org/art/2018.307",
"images": {},
"alternate_images": [],
"creditline": "Gift of Robert and Elizabeth Soppelsa, in memory of the artist G\u00e9rard Santoni",
"image_credit": null,
"sketchfab_id": null,
"sketchfab_url": null,
"gallery_donor_text": null,
"athena_id": 297929,
"creators": [
{
"id": 322264,
"description": "G\u00e9rard Santoni (Ivorian, 1943\u20132008)",
"extent": null,
"qualifier": null,
"role": "artist",
"biography": null,
"name_in_original_language": null,
"birth_year": "1945",
"death_year": "2008",
"use_in_caption": true,
"include_extent": false,
"weight": 1
}
],
"legal_status": "accessioned",
"accession_date": "2018-12-03T00:00:00-05:00",
"sortable_date": 1983,
"date_added_to_oa": null,
"date_text": "c.1988\u201393",
"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": [],
"is_highlight": false,
"updated_at": "2026-05-01 06:53:46.974000"
}
}