Palm Wine Cup (Mbwoongntey)
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Object Label
Charles Sheeler saw the modern equivalent of the imposing religious architecture of the past in the expansive, streamlined masses of factory buildings and refineries. Incantation, whose very title sounds like a spiritual evocation, is a fragmentary view of a continuous-flow oil production plant. Here Sheeler reduced the architectural forms to a more two-dimensional design in which shadows play as weighty a role as the metal tanks and pipes. The lack of a human presence suggests the degree to which these vast plants had come to be viewed as nearly autonomous forces.
Caption
Kuba. Palm Wine Cup (Mbwoongntey), 19th century. Wood, copper alloy, 8 x 3 3/4 x 3 3/4 in. (20.3 x 9.5 x 9.5 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Museum Expedition 1922, Robert B. Woodward Memorial Fund, 22.172. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 22.172_SL1.jpg)
Gallery
Not on view
Collection
Gallery
Not on view
Collection
Culture
Title
Palm Wine Cup (Mbwoongntey)
Date
19th century
Geography
Possible place made: Kasai Province, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Possible place made: Lulua Province, Democratic Republic of the Congo
Medium
Wood, copper alloy
Classification
Dimensions
8 x 3 3/4 x 3 3/4 in. (20.3 x 9.5 x 9.5 cm)
Credit Line
Museum Expedition 1922, Robert B. Woodward Memorial Fund
Accession Number
22.172
Rights
Creative Commons-BY
You may download and use Brooklyn Museum images of this three-dimensional work in accordance with a Creative Commons license. Fair use, as understood under the United States Copyright Act, may also apply. Please include caption information from this page and credit the Brooklyn Museum. If you need a high resolution file, please fill out our online application form (charges apply). For further information about copyright, we recommend resources at the United States Library of Congress, Cornell University, Copyright and Cultural Institutions: Guidelines for U.S. Libraries, Archives, and Museums, and Copyright Watch. For more information about the Museum's rights project, including how rights types are assigned, please see our blog posts on copyright. If you have any information regarding this work and rights to it, please contact copyright@brooklynmuseum.org.
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