Painting Item Number: 3595/53 from the MOA: University of British Columbia

Description

Vertical painting of a stylized anthropomorphic figure with the head pointed up, toward the top of the canvas. The figure has orange dots on either side and is decorated with orange and white lines, circles, zigzags, semicircles, and dots. To the right of the figure is a long line that ends in a point facing downward, toward the bottom of the cloth. This line has smaller lines extending from the top left side toward the face of the figure. The space around the bottom of the figure is filled with repeating brown lines, mostly on the left side. The left side of these lines contains concentric orange and white circles. The canvas is stretched on a wooden stretcher and held in place by nails. Dark red-brown paint marks are on the back; ink label on the lower right side 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
3595/53
Type of Item
painting
Overall
height 75.0 cm, width 46.3 cm, depth 1.6 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
3595/0053