George Terasaki, New York
Edwin and Cherie Silver, Los Angeles, acquired from the above on February 14, 1974

Arthur P. Bourgeois, Art of the Yaka and Suku, Meudon, 1984, p. 265, fig. 245
Warren M. Robbins and Nancy Ingram Nooter, African Art in American Collections, Survey 1989, Washington, D.C., 1989, p. 412, fig. 1049

The Yaka people of southwestern D.R. Congo made figurative sculptures, called biteki, which contained charges that endowed the statuette with curative and protective powers when activated by a diviner or ritual specialist. Materials for the charge were hidden within body cavities, partially visible on the present figure through the remaining plant fibers in the top of the coiffure and the small round holes on its back and between its buttocks. According to Yaka scholar Arthur Bourgeois, the way that a biteki was carved sometimes literally depicted the physical ills suffered by a patient under its ritualistic power (Bourgeois, Art of the Yake and Suku, 1984, p. 109). In the present lot, this seems to suggest that an unfortunate Yaka victim was hoping to rid himself of a swollen abdomen.

Sculpturally, the figure’s rounded torso is supported by its two enormous and stabilizing feet and powerfully rendered legs, flexed at the knee in a position of tension. The hands of the figure, merged into one concave panel, are clasped just below the long cylindrical neck. Although not representative of any particular person, the facial features and coiffure are simple and highly refined. The combination of the slightly upturned nose, a signature form of the Yaka sculptural tradition, and the downcast eyes sunken deep into the facial plane instills the figure with a somber and contemplative expression, as if it introspectively preparing for a spiritual journey.