Spoon Woman

This sculpture is a key work of the group from 1925–27 that was inspired by African and other tribal art.
The powerful spoon shape recalls ancient fertility idols and spoons in human form made by African tribal cultures. It is half-curved towards the viewer; yet even as it opens up it also draws away, thus creating an enigmatic tension. The artist designed the individual elements of the sculpture in such a way as to emphasize their hovering presence and the phantasmal frontality of the figure.