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The Seated III

Wangechi Mutu Kenyan-American
2019
Not on view
The Seated I (MMA 2020.119) and III are two of four sculptures created by Mutu for The Met's facade in September 2019, part of a commission titled The NewOnes, will free Us. They consist of kneeling female figures, simultaneously celestial and humanoid in character, cast in bronze, each a mirror image of the other. They are graced with a variety of embellishments, from coils to polished discs, that recall customs practiced by high-ranking African women, such as beaded bodices, circular necklaces, lip plates, crowns, hair styles, and skull elongation. The sculptures take a great deal of inspiration from the tradition of female load-bearers, sometimes referred to as caryatids, which are frequently but not always women carved out of stone or wood. Female load-bearers appear in various guises across times and places, and they are omnipresent in The Met's Greek, African, American, and European collections. In the case of these two works, Mutu has staged a feminist intervention into the history of the female load-bearer, liberating her figures from the tasks they were historically assigned to perform, that of supporting something or someone else, whether a building or a male king. Belonging to no one time or place, The Seated I and III are stately, resilient, and self-possessed, announcing their authority and autonomy.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: The Seated III
  • Artist: Wangechi Mutu (Kenyan-American, born Nairobi, 1972)
  • Date: 2019
  • Medium: Bronze
  • Dimensions: 82 1/2 × 33 1/2 × 44 in. (209.6 × 85.1 × 111.8 cm)
  • Classification: Sculpture
  • Credit Line: Purchase, Women and the Critical Eye Gifts and Janet Lee Kadesky Ruttenberg Fund, in memory of William S. Lieberman, and in celebration of the Museum's 150th Anniversary, 2020
  • Object Number: 2020.128
  • Rights and Reproduction: © Wangechi Mutu. Courtesy of the Artist and Gladstone Gallery, New York and Brussels
  • Curatorial Department: Modern and Contemporary Art

More Artwork

More Artwork
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The Seated I, Wangechi Mutu Kenyan-American, Bronze
The Seated I
Wangechi Mutu
2019
My Strength Lies, Wangechi Mutu Kenyan-American, Ink, acrylic, photomechanically printed cut and pasted paper, contact paper, metallic sequin and glitter on two mylar sheets
My Strength Lies
Wangechi Mutu
2006
Girl
Multiple artists/makers
2021
The Seated II, Wangechi Mutu Kenyan-American, Bronze
Returned to lender
The Seated II
Wangechi Mutu
2019
The Seated IV, Wangechi Mutu Kenyan-American, Bronze
Returned to lender
The Seated IV
Wangechi Mutu
2019

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