Teach with Collections: Akan artist; memorial head (nsodie)

The Akan have created terracotta memorial portraits since the seventeenth century; in parts of Ghana, such portraits commemorate important community figures to this day. Historically, the families of those who were to be memorialized handpicked the female artists who created their portraits. Each artist visited her subject multiple times to observe their natural essence. Other accounts say that artists worked from facial impressions left in pillows, or from reflections in water or palm wine. This head memorializes an elite Akan individual, but is not an exact likeness. Instead, it blends idealized royal characteristics (including an elongated head and a “cool” expression with slightly closed eyes, open mouth, and shimmering skin) with individual traits (such as skin color, facial markings, and hairstyle). It is this idea of memory—and conjuring up a person’s essence—that was central to Akan portraits. Conversation prompts: 1. Describe the surfaces of this portrait (consider texture, color, and shape). 2. Compare this idealized portrait to others in global art history. How has the idealized portrait been used to promote cultural values? 3. Memory is crucial to the process of creating and understanding the subjects of Akan funerary portraits. How can we relate to them if we don’t know the person they depict?