Yoruba Bante or Apron for Harvest Celebration, Framed

Harvest time. Glass beads stitched onto cloth, and a garment worth being seen in.

This is a bante, or apron, made by the Yoruba of Nigeria in the mid 20th century and worn for harvest celebration. Yoruba beadwork is closely tied to ceremony and display. The top edge rises in three rounded arches, each framing a stylized face. Below, a patchwork of triangles in red, sky blue, white, silver and dusky brown fills the ground, with two spiral-bodied figures and smaller faces worked among them.

The dark cloth backing shows at the edges. Framed in black, floated on white. It reads like a modern abstraction, which is a nice joke on the abstractionists.