Fang Head for a Reliquary

Gabon 

Wood, metal eyes
Height: 14¾ in. (37.5 cm)
Circa 1800 – 1850
Base by the Japanese wood artist Kichizô Inagaki (1876–1951), Paris

Provenance:
Charles Ratton and Louis Carré, Paris, 1932 (inv. no. Ratton, 1098)
Louis Carré (1935–77), Paris
Knoedler & Co., New York, 1940s
Olga Carré, Paris, by descent

Published:
Sweeney, J.J. African Negro Art, New York: Museum of Modern Art, 1935, no. 588
Evans, W. African Negro Art—A Corpus of Photographs by Walker Evans, New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 1935, p. 374 (not illustrated)
Locke, A. et al. An Exhibition of African Art, Baltimore: The Baltimore Museum of Art, 1946, no. 126

Exhibited:
African Negro Art:
– New York, The Museum of Modern Art, March 18–May 19, 1935
– Manchester, NH, Currier Museum of Art, June 10–July 8, 1935
– San Francisco, San Francisco Museum of Art (today: San Francisco Museum of Modern Art), July 23–September 2, 1935
– Cleveland, Cleveland Museum of Art, September 28–October 27, 1935
Baltimore, The Baltimore Museum of Art, An Exhibition of African Art, November 1–24, 1946