Kimbell Art Museum adds masterful sculptures to its collection of African art

The Kimbell Art Museum has acquired two sculptures from the Central African country Gabon, the museum announced Tuesday, Nov. 18

The 19th century Kota “Reliquary Guardian Figure (Mbulu Ngulu)” and Kwele “Mask with Curved Horns,” estimated from the 19th or 20th centuries, both give insight into how each culture prepared for the afterlife and revered their elders and leaders. The pieces were purchased from the Barbier-Mueller Collection in Geneva.

“The Kota reliquary and Kwele mask are each exemplars of technical mastery and spiritual significance,” said Eric M. Lee, director of the Kimbell Art Museum. “The reliquary figure stands out even among the vast and diverse corpus of Kota art in public and private collections, while the extremely rare and beautiful Kwele mask is made all the more special by being exceptional within a small group of similar sculptures. I am so grateful to the Barbier-Mueller family for making these works available to us.”

“Reliquary Guardian Figure (Mbulu Ngulu)” is a pristine example of how the Kota people revered the powerful. The wood and metal figures were typically attached to baskets carrying the bones of their ancestors. Their reverence for the dead becomes even more powerful knowing they were a migratory people.

The primary function of the figures was to protect and act as guardians for the ancestry relics housed in the containers below them. During rituals, the sculptures were also active participants, playing a key role bridging human and existential realms.

The “Reliquary Guardian Figure” has a horizontal oval face with large circular eyes wrapped by an arch-shaped crest with curved extensions ending in pierced volutes, and a sharply pointed chin made from red copper, brass and other alloys.

“Mask with Curved Horns” is one of the rare remaining masks created by the Kwele people, who straddle Gabon and Congo. The mask is an object used during rituals such as “beete,” bringing harmony between the living, the ancestors and forest spirits, or “ekuk.” Harmony among the three, they believed, kept crises at bay. When crises like war or famine struck, the ritual was performed to bring back order.

The masks combine human and animal attributes, and that is plainly seen in the Kimbell’s stunner. The mask is a concave, heart-shaped face covered in white kaolin clay with long, arched horns that curve toward the chin. Carved within the horns near the tips are two small faces, prompting more questions about the other two mysterious faces and what, perhaps, they say about the afterlife.

Given their size and weight, many surviving masks were not worn but displayed within cult houses. But some like the Kimbell’s have eyes and other piercings cut into them and used likely as part of initiations or the end of a ritual.

Kwele masks are rare, and for the Kimbell, which has a small collection of African art, its addition propels its holdings to a new level of noteworthiness, and further insight into the relationship between mortality and the afterlife.

Both are now on display in the Kahn building.