Self-Portrait as Nkisi Nkondi Figure, 2010, Bound sketchbook, Collection of the Estate of David C. Driskell, Maryland

Audio Description

Self-Portrait as Nkisi Nkondi Figure is from a bound sketchbook and dates to 2010. It is from the Collection of the Estate of David. C. Driskell in Maryland.

This is a vertical graphite drawing in a bound sketchbook called Self-Portrait as Nkisi Nkondi Figure. Driskell used only black to draw this figure. Against a roughly sketched backdrop, there is a loose drawing of this power figure from the Kongo Peoples of Central Africa, which is called a nkisi nkondi. The figure is resting on a pedestal with bare feet. It has a round face with wide eyes and large lips. It is wearing intricate clothing and has its right arm raised. There is a round cavity with a mirrored surface in the figure’s abdomen. In the reflection of the mirror is Driskell’s sketch of himself from the neck up. His signature is in the bottom right corner of the pedestal on which the figure sits, and he wrote the title of the drawing on the left. The whole portrait seems to be situated toward the top left corner of the paper, with a lot of empty negative space at the bottom and on the right.

Label Copy

Self-Portrait as Nkisi Nkondi Figure is from a bound sketchbook and dates to 2010. It is from the Collection of the Estate of David. C. Driskell in Maryland.

In this drawing, Driskell transforms himself into a traditional art object from Central Africa known as a nkisi nkondi. Minkisi (plural) were collaborative objects of the Kongo Peoples of Central Africa that engaged artists, diviners, and ritual experts. Driskell’s portrait appears in the round mirror, near the figure’s abdomen, an area of significant power and energy for minkisi.

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