House of Shango
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Offered directly by the Samella Lewis Estate.
Each work is inspected and securely packaged before shipment.
About the Work
House of Shango draws its title from Shango, the Yoruba orisha associated with thunder and lightning. Lewis presents a figure emerging from—or held within—a house-like structure, making the architecture function as more than a setting. It becomes a vessel for memory, belief, and cultural transmission.
The work is not simply an image of an African religious figure. Its subject is movement across geography and time. Shango traditions traveled from West Africa into the Caribbean, where they took on new forms, and the image asks how those histories continue within Black life in the United States.
Institutional interpretation
The Ruth Chandler Williamson Gallery at Scripps College holds an impression and has interpreted the work through this transatlantic history. Its collection essay connects the emerging figure to the transformation of Shango traditions across Africa, the Caribbean, and Black America—an especially meaningful context given Lewis’s long career at Scripps.
Print and edition notes
The estate catalogues this 1992 work as a lithograph from an edition of 60. Its concentrated black field and carved-looking linear passages give the image the visual force of a relief print even as the edition is recorded in the estate catalogue as lithography.
About the Artist
Dr. Samella Lewis (1923–2022) was an artist, scholar, educator, curator, and publisher whose work helped reshape the study and presentation of African American art. Her studio practice and her institution-building shared a commitment to preserving artists’ histories and expanding the audiences able to encounter them.
Artwork Details
Artist: Dr. Samella Lewis
Medium: Lithograph
Date: 1992
Dimensions: 24 × 18 in.
Edition: 60
Presentation: Unframed
Estate & Availability
This work is offered directly by the Samella Lewis Estate. Availability reflects the estate’s current holdings and may change as works enter private and institutional collections.
Shipping & Care
Each work is individually inspected and securely packaged before shipment. Shipping arrangements, insurance, and any condition-specific handling are confirmed before fulfillment.