African Art, Primitive Art - Ancient Male Anthropomorphic Statue - Fetish, Curiosity

Burkina Faso, Ghana or Ivory Coast, first half of the 20th century

Ancient private family collection (Aubenas, Ardèche). This sculpture was brought back from West Africa by an ancestor of the family and then kept by descent until today.

Ancient male anthropomorphic sculpture carved from a single block of wood with a brown-black to black patina.

The figure is depicted standing in a frontal, hieratic posture. The widely arched arms are drawn back towards the hips, while the powerful legs rest on an integrated base. The head, deliberately oversized, is carried by a long cylindrical neck that accentuates the overall slenderness of the figure.

The face features deliberately simplified features: half-closed eyes, straight nose and discreetly incised mouth. The back of the head is extended by a sculpted headdress or ornament descending into the back in a particularly characteristic tapered shape.

The ensemble is distinguished by the sobriety of its treatment and the balance of its volumes. The purified forms, the search for symmetry and the absence of superfluous details testify to a conception of sculpture where the expressive force rests above all on the presence of the figure and the power of the masses.

By its formal vocabulary, this work evokes certain traditional productions of the Gur populations of West Africa, particularly in the regions corresponding today to Burkina Faso, northern Côte d'Ivoire or Ghana. Beyond a precise attribution, it is fully in keeping with the tradition of ritual or protective statuary developed in this vast cultural area.

The work shows an old black patina from use, revealing in places the lighter hue of the wood. A large old shrinkage crack runs through the head and headdress, a natural phenomenon associated with the aging of the material.

By the quality of its presence, the balance of its composition and the sobriety of its execution, this sculpture is an interesting testimony to the traditional arts of West Africa during the first half of the twentieth century.

Condition:

Wear, rubbing, small accidents and large old shrinkage crack. Old patina from use.

Dimensions:

Height: 49 cm