Unrecorded artist, Democratic Republic of Congo

Notes

The Mbuti are among the few remaining hunter-gatherer cultures in the world. Until recently, the barkcloth paintings created by Mbuti women were virtually unknown in the West.

Mbuti women paint rhythmical, fluid patterns onto sheets of pounded bark using fine sticks or quills and natural inks derived from fruits and tree bark. The designs draw upon the same rich repertoire of motifs and patterns used in body painting for family and community members. The iconography is complex and deeply symbolic: individual elements, such as dots, stars, and lines, as well as groupings of these forms, reference Mbuti cosmology and their understanding of origin, place, and interconnectedness within the universe.

These sophisticated abstract compositions embody the qualities of improvisation and syncopation often associated with African visual and musical sensibilities.

^1. Georges Meurant and Robert Farris Thompson (1995) Mbuti Design: Paintings by Pygmy Women of the Ituri Forest, London: Thames and Hudson

Provenance

Michael Heuermann Collection.