Initiation, Liberia

Loïs Mailou Jones, Initiation, Liberia, 1983, acrylic on canvas, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Bequest of the artist, 2006.24.7
Loïs Mailou Jones, Initiation, Liberia, 1983, acrylic on canvas, 35 1⁄4 x 23 1⁄4 in. (89.6 x 59.1 cm), Smithsonian American Art Museum, Bequest of the artist, 2006.24.7

Artwork Details

Title
Initiation, Liberia
Artist
Date
1983
Location
Not on view
Dimensions
35 1⁄4 x 23 1⁄4 in. (89.6 x 59.1 cm)
Credit Line
Bequest of the artist
Mediums
Mediums Description
acrylic on canvas
Classifications
Subjects
  • Figure female — head
  • African
  • Allegory — life — womanhood
Object Number
2006.24.7
Linked Open Data
https://edan.si.edu/saam/id/object/2006.24.7

Artwork Description

Jones was especially sensitive to the rights and roles of women. For many years she felt forced to ship rather than deliver her work in person to exhibitions so museums would not reject them because they had been done by a black female artist. In Initiation, Liberia, she interpreted the Sande society initiation ritual. The swath of white paint across the young woman’s eyes indicates her role as an initiate. The mask partly obscures her distinctive personality but combined with the receding profiles at the left of her head, suggests continuity over generations that is implied by the ritual ceremony.


African American Art: Harlem Renaissance, Civil Rights Era, and Beyond, 2012

Works by this artist (31 items)

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Wayne Thiebaud, Three Sandwiches, 1961, oil on canvas, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of the Woodward Foundation, 1976.108.144
Three Sandwiches
Artist
Date1961
oil on canvas
On view
Wayne Thiebaud, Renwick Gallery Tenth Birthday, color offset reproduction, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of the Smithsonian Resident Associate Program, 1982.7
Renwick Gallery Tenth Birthday
Artist
color offset reproduction
Not on view
Wayne Thiebaud, Big Suckers, from the portfolio Seven Still Lifes and a Silver Landscape, 1971, aquatint on paper, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase, 1974.52.1
Big Suckers, from the portfolio Seven Still Lifes and a…
Artist
Date1971
aquatint on paper
Not on view
Wayne Thiebaud, San Francisco West Side Ridge, 2001, oil on canvas, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Sam Rose and Julie Walters, 2004.30.5
San Francisco West Side Ridge
Artist
Date2001
oil on canvas
Not on view

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