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"The most powerful artistic impression of women"

"She’s completely at ease and staring down any kind of gaze."

"She's completely at ease and staring down any kind of gaze."

Curator Alisa LaGamma on "Figure from a Reliquary Ensemble: Seated Female."

Explore this object:
https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/310870

Throughout 2013, The Met invited curators from across the Museum to each talk about one artwork that changed the way they see the world. Each episode is interpreted by a Museum photographer.

Photography by Anna-Marie Kellen

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Contributors

Alisa LaGamma
Ceil and Michael E. Pulitzer Curator in Charge, Department of the Arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas

Close-up of a Queen of Clubs playing card with a cut-out section. Behind it, a faded, ghostly face is visible, creating a surreal, mysterious mood.
The artist’s work challenges the social and political context of mass incarceration.
Lisa Sutcliffe
April 28
Photo image of The Great Hall of the Met, with hanging calligraphy paintings
Explore how the Taiwanese artist’s Great Hall Commission invites a transhistorical conversation about the art of writing
Lesley Ma
February 28
More in:Art Explained

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Eyema byeri (reliquary guardian figure), Okak-Fang artist, Wood, metal, Fang peoples, Okak group
Okak-Fang artist
19th–early 20th century