Spoon Woman

Evoking a female body through simplified shapes that suggest a head, shoulders, a chest, and a wide, concave womb, this sculpture was inspired by a ceremonial ladle created by the Dan communities of Liberia and Côte d’Ivoire. These objects, known as a wakemia or wunkirmian, likewise incorporate anthropomorphic forms into their construction, and they were exhibited frequently in museums in Paris during the 1920s. Objects like these were of immense interest to European artists, including Alberto Giacometti, who appreciated their geometry, their literal rendering of bodily volumes, and the alternatives they presented to Western modes of modeling and carving.