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This important central African power figure is identified with the preeminent force of jurisprudence, Mangaaka -  the power represented as a presiding authority and enforcing lord or king. The figure’s posture and gesture, leaning forward with hands placed akimbo on the hips, is the aggressive attitude of one who challenges fearlessly. Moreover, the crowning element on the figure is the distinctive mpu headdress worn by chiefs or priests.

In the September 17th, 2015 issue of The New York Times, Holland Cotter writes a review of the show:

www.nytimes.com/2015/09/18/arts/design/review-kongo-power-and-majesty-at-the-metropolitan-museum-of-art.html


In the September 30th, 2015 issue of The New York Times, Daniel McDermon writes on this specific figure:

www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/10/01/arts/design/kongo-power-figure-mangaaka-met-museum.html?_r=1

The traces of a missing beard on the face are a sign of seniority which survive in the form of nails along the contours of the chin.  There are also vestiges of an abdominal cavity for medicinal matter that originally attracted the figure’s defining force. 
 
The various metals embedded in the figure’s expansive torso and other parts of its body attest to its central role as witness and enforcer of affairs critical to its community - they document vows sealed, treaties signed, and efforts to eradicate evil.  Ultimately, this work inspired reflection on the consequences of transgressing established codes of social conduct.

In the October 12, 2015 issue of The New Yorker magazine, Peter Schjeldahl writes the following review:

www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/10/12/power-surge

In addition, Entwistle will present an eclectic group of masterpieces, including a 4th century B.C. Greek head of a deity, paintings by the celebrated Japanese artist Toshimitsu Imai, and a group of watercolours by the Korean minimalist master Lee Ufan

For over ten years, ENTWISTLE has been one of the leading participants at this much celebrated annual fair; by virtue of the quality and rarity of the artworks on view and the international diversity of its participants, Parcours des Mondes is considered the most important fair of its kind in the world

Among the many rare and important works of art we will present at this year's Parcours des Mondes is an exceptional collection of Sepik masks

An important ancestor figure, singiti, from the Hemba peoples of the Luika River region in the Democratic Republic of the Congo was recently acquired from Entwistle by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. The figure dates to the 18th century and is a convergence of all the attributes which define a masterful sculptural representation of male power: equilibrium, symmetry, and refinement

The figure possesses an impressive provenance, having once been in the collections of Jacques Blanckaert, Brussels and Luciano (Lele) Lanfranchi, Milan before being sold by Entwistle to a private collection in New York

 

In addition, the figure has appeared in a number of important exhibitions, notably Cent Chefs-d'Oeuvre du Musée Ethnographique d'Anvers et de Collections Particulieres. Sculptures Africaines: Nouveau Regard sur un Héritage, held at the Marcel Peters Centrum in Antwerp in 1975; La Grande Scultura dell’Africa Nera, held at the Forte di Belvedere in Florence in 1989 and Le Grand Heritage: Sculptures de l’Afrique Noire, held at the Musée Dapper in Paris in 1992

The figure has also been widely published, notably in Ezio Bassani, Ed., La Grande Scultura dell’Africa Nera, Florence, 1989, p. 268, cat. 130; Ezio Bassani, Le Grand Heritage: Sculptures de l’Afrique Noire, Paris, 1992, p. 232; Pr. François Neyt, La Grande Statuaire Hemba du Zaire, Louvain-la- Neuve, 1977, pp. 258-259 ; p. 433, fig. 56 and back-cover; and John Pemberton III, Crosscurrents: Art of the Southeastern Congo, Northampton, MA, 2011, p. 54, cat. 42

www.metmuseum.org/collection/the-collection-online/search/320673

For seven consecutive years, Entwistle has been a participant in this prestigious fair, representing the paragon of excellence in the material arts of Africa, Oceania and the Americas

For 2014, Entwistle exhibited masterpieces from various indigenous cultures of the African continent, including a monumental Baga D’mba (Nimba) crest from the former collection of J.J. Klejman and an important American institutional collection. Of equal importance, we exhibited a rare bronze plaque of a bird hunter from the Edo Kingdom of Benin, attributed to ‘The Master of the Circled Cross’

From the South Seas, Entwistle brought to Maastricht a monumental Dayak guardian hempatong figure and from Meso America we showed a sublime hacha stone court marker used by the Maya peoples of Chiapas State in Mexico and dating back to the Early Classical Period (ca. A.D. 250-550)