Object Details
- Label Text
- Across Africa, toys are frequently made of wire and other recycled or found materials. Many have moving parts, and all demonstrate an extraordinary imagination. Their linear quality and lively sense of animation have influenced local artists and inspired multiple museum exhibitions. Entertaining toys in the form of sewing machines, bicyclists and figures paddling canoes are proving so popular in some areas that artists now devise easily packable versions for the tourist market.
- Description
- Push toy bicycle composed of a man and boy on a wheel, with blue bodies and black faces. Squatter's camp.
- Provenance
- Acquired in 1984-1987, South Africa
- Exhibition History
- African Mosaic: Selections from the Permanent Collection, National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., November 19, 2013–August 12, 2019 (deinstalled February 19, 2014)
- African Mosaic: Celebrating a Decade of Collecting, National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., November 19, 2010-November 13, 2013
- Content Statement
- As part of our commitment to accessibility and transparency, the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art is placing its collection records online. Please note that some records are incomplete (missing image or content descriptions) and others reflect out-of-date language or systems of thought regarding how to engage with and discuss cultural heritage and the specifics of individual artworks. If you see content requiring immediate action, we will do our best to address it in a timely manner. Please email nmafacuratorial@si.edu if you have any questions.
- Image Requests
- High resolution digital images are not available for some objects. For publication quality photography and permissions, please contact the Eliot Elisofon Photographic Archives at https://africa.si.edu/research/eliot-elisofon-photographic-archives/
- Data Source
- National Museum of African Art
- Maker
- Undetermined artist
- Date
- 1984-1987
- Credit Line
- Gift of Kenneth and Bonnie Brown
- Medium
- Wire, plastic bag, paint
- Dimensions
- H x W x D: 28.5 x 50 x 16 cm (11 1/4 x 19 11/16 x 6 5/16 in.)
- Type
- Sculpture
