File:Pipe Head, Brücke-Museum Berlin, 64980, view a.jpg
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Captions
Captions
Pipe Head, Kuba-region, Southeast of Democratic Republic of Congo, around 1900-1970, side view from the right
Summary
Object
| Artist |
English: once known creator
Deutsch: einst bekannte*r Urheber*in |
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| Description |
Deutsch: Pfeifenkopf
English: Pipe Head |
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| Date | between 1900 and 1970 | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Medium | wood | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Dimensions | height: 10 cm (3.9 in); width: 11.4 cm (4.4 in); depth: 6.5 cm (2.5 in) | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Collection |
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| Accession number |
H 19 |
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| Place of creation | Kuba people (Q358860), Democratic Republic of the Congo (Q974) | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Object history |
transferred to Karl und Emy Schmidt-Rottluff Stiftung from Karl Schmidt-Rottluff |
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| Notes |
English: Elaborately carved pipe bowls were prestige symbols of the elites of the Kuba (also Bakuba) society in the South-East of what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo. They were worn visibly on the owner's belt when not in use. The head shape, with its high forehead, the shaved, edged hairline, and elaborate scarification on the face is consistent with the refined fashion of the Kuba elites in the late 19th century.
According to Kuba oral tradition, its existence can be traced back to the sixth century and the founding father Woot. In the 17th century, the kingdom emerged as a federation of some 20 Bantu-speaking groups and unfolded an unprecedented economic and cultural blossoming. The prosperous Kuba Empire developed highly complex political institutions and ritual systems that found expression in poetry and rhetoric, weaving and woodcarving. Until the mid-19th century, the federation remained largely unchallenged by slave hunters and powerful neighbors. When the Kuba Empire began to trade in ivory, enslaved people, and rubber toward the end of the 19th century and opened up to foreigners, the Federation came under increasing pressure and fully disintegrated during King Leopold's and Belgium’s colonial rule. The population was subjected to massive atrocities by colonial trading partners, malnutrition, and epidemics.Deutsch: Solche kunstvoll geschnitzten Pfeifenköpfe waren Prestigesymbole der Eliten der Kuba (auch Bakuba) Gesellschaft im Südosten der heutigen Demokratischen Republik Kongo. Sie wurden, wenn sie nicht in Gebrauch waren, sichtbar am Gürtel des Besitzers getragen. Die Kopfform mit der hohen Stirn, dem ausrasierten, kantigen Haaransatz und die elaborierten Skarifizierungen im Gesicht entsprechen der raffinierten Mode der Kuba Eliten im späten 19. Jahrhundert.
Gemäß der mündlichen Überlieferung der Kuba lässt sich ihre Existenz bis in das sechste Jahrhundert zurückverfolgen und beruft sich auf den Gründungsvater Woot. Im 17. Jahrhundert bildete sich das Königreich als Föderation von circa 20 bantu-sprachigen Gruppen heraus und entfaltete eine beispiellose wirtschaftliche und kulturelle Blüte. Das wohlhabende Kuba Reich entwickelte hochkomplexe politische Institutionen und rituelle Systeme, die ihren Ausdruck auch in der Poesie und Rhetorik, Weberei und Holzschnitzerei fanden. Bis zur Mitte des 19. Jahrhunderts blieb die Föderation weitgehend unbehelligt von Sklavenjägern und den mächtigen Nachbarn. Als das Kuba Reich gegen Ende des 19. Jahrhunderts begann, mit Elfenbein, Versklavten und Gummi zu handeln und sich für Fremde zu öffnen, geriet die Föderation zunehmend unter Druck und zerfiel vollends während der Kolonialherrschaft König Leopolds und Belgiens. Die Bevölkerung war massiven Gräueltaten der kolonialen Handelspartner, Mangelernährung und Epidemien ausgesetzt. |
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| References | https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/311007 / Jan Vansina, Being Colonized: The Kuba Experience in Rural Congo 1880-1960, The University of Wisconsin Press, 2010. | |||||||||||||||||||||||
Photograph
| Description |
English: Pipe Head, Kuba-region, Southeast of Democratic Republic of Congo, around 1900-1970, side view from the right  |
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| Date | ||||
| Source | BrückeMuseumBerlin | |||
| Author | Nick Ash, Berlin | |||
| Permission (Reusing this file) |
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| Other versions |
The estate of Karl Schmidt-Rottluff, owned by the Karl and Emy Schmidt-Rottluff Foundation at the Brücke Museum, contains his collection of around 100 sculptures and objects with colonial backgrounds. The Brücke artist himself never travelled outside Europe and, to the best of current knowledge, bought these objects in the art trade and from private owners from the 1910s onwards. The collection includes ritual and everyday objects, alongside souvenirs for the Western market. The way they were perceived underwent changes: they came to be seen as objects of art and decoration. Little is known of their origins, the circumstances of their acquisition, or the historical and current importance of the objects. Most of them originate from Germany’s former colonies, thus referring directly to German Expressionists’ entanglements in the often unlawful appropriation of material culture in colonially occupied lands. More
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| current | 12:48, 26 April 2022 | | 8,270 × 6,196 (21.12 MB) | BrückeMuseumBerlin (talk | contribs) | Uploaded own work with UploadWizard |
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