Sculpture

This sculpture is the last known work by artist Ernest Mancoba. He carved it out of a single wood block, leaving traces of his chisel on the diminutive, vaguely lifelike form. The sculpture seems to reflect both the artist’s early exposure to small Christian icons—such as crosses and rosaries brought by missionaries—and South African devotional sculpture, which reflect a blend of Christian and Indigenous influences. Although critics viewed Mancoba’s “little wooden images” as evidence of his “strong African origins,” for Mancoba it was not geography that mattered, but the shared lineage with artists who could reconcile the spiritual and the material.