Painting Item Number: 3595/57 from the MOA: University of British Columbia

Description

Vertical painting of two standing anthropomorphic figures. The figures are separated and bordered by various shapes outlined with both solid and dotted lines. These shapes are filled with repeating dots in orange, with some pink. The background is solid light orange-pink. The line down the middle, separating the two figures, is pronged on each side. A half-circular shape surrounds the lower portions of the two figures. The figure on the right side has a striped and dotted design under the lower body; the left, concentric u-shapes. The cloth is stretched on a wooden stretcher and held in place by nails. There are dark red-brown paint marks on the back. There is a numbered label written in ink on the lower right side of the back of the stretcher; there are French and Arabic labels on the upper left and lower right corners (respectively) of the stretcher.

Narrative

Collected by Fred Haack in South Sudan. Haack said he spent "a great deal of time in Juba" from 1979-c. 1982, where he acquired 80 Dinka paintings. Haack wrote that the paintings were made by "a young Dinka tribesman who went to a missionary school for a few months and, with no training, put paint to canvas." The artist's name in unknown. Haack gave 70 of the paintings to the Museum of Civilization in 1994. In 1996 he gave the last 10 to the Kelowna Museum (now Okanagan Heritage Museum).

Item History

What

Name
Painting
Identification Number
3595/57
Type of Item
painting
Overall
height 77.0 cm, width 49.7 cm, depth 1.7 cm

Who

Culture
Dinka
Previous Owner
Fred E. Haack and Okanagan Heritage Museum
Received from
Okanagan Heritage Museum (Transferring institution)

Where

Holding Institution
MOA: University of British Columbia
Made in
“South Sudan” ?

When

Collection Date
between 1979 and 1982
Ownership Date
before 1996 and before September 14, 2022
Acquisition Date
on September 14, 2022

Other

Item Classes
paintings
Condition
good
Accession Number
3595/0057