Lot n° 75
Estimation :
30000 - 50000
EUR
Result with fees
Result
: 41 600EUR
Seated statue, Baulé, Ivory Coast - Lot 75
Seated statue, Baulé, Ivory Coast
Wood, fabric, beads
Height: 47.5 cm
Provenance: Patrick Girard Collection, Lyon
Patrick Girard Collection, Lyon, acquired ca. 1980
Collection Richard Vinatier, Avignon (inv. n0 607)
Acknowledged and elevated to the rank of the primitive arts most appreciated by Westerners, Baoulé statuary has conquered aesthetes the world over for its symbolism, its delicate modelling and the peacefulness with which it is animated. Among the modernists, Vlaminck was one of the first to succumb. To his striking "introspective reflection" (Vogel, Baulé: African
Art, Wester Eyes, 1997, p. 28) is matched by her rare, remarkable and intriguing seated posture, accentuating her quietude and lending her a meditative allure.
The surface of this feminine figure, whose gestures are imbued with delicacy, shows a crusty patina and a few traces of kaolin, enabling it to be identified with an asie usu. It is said to represent, as dictated by the soothsayer (the komyienfwé), "a bush genie" in the form and features of a human corresponding to the classic iconographic criteria of Baule beauty.
As intermediaries with natural and supernatural forces, conceived as a receptacle, a dwelling place for spirits, asye usu enabled men, and the diviner himself, to appease, honor and communicate with them.
Embodying the spirit of nature, art fulfilled a higher function designed to: "To overcome instinct and irrationality, to overcome the disorder of the world, to inscribe a balance in clear plans and precise contours, to dominate impulsiveness, to immobilize the volatile spirit, to fix for it the constraint of a measure, of a musicality. [...] Impose on an indocile, turbulent being an architectonic, a density, harmonious, gently curving lines" (Boyer, Baulé, 2008, p. 33-34).
The elaborate hairstyles, here made up of fine rows of braided plaits, as well as the refined scarifications animating the bust and belly, and the face of this seated female figure, they were according to Susan Vogel "signs of the civilized person" expressing the fact that "the once savage and destructive energies will henceforth work for the good of their human host." (From the Visible to the Invisible, p.237).
The power of symbolism is matched by beauty: the more beautiful the statue, the more benevolent the spirit. Its forms complement each other, reflecting each other in perfect harmony. The angular lines of the slender, pointed breasts, bent knees and elbows, contrasting skilfully with the soft oval of the face, with the exaggerated roundness of the belly, on which her hands are carefully placed, suggesting fertility, contribute to the rhythm of the composition.
With its proud, dynamic seated posture (the bent legs expressing concentrated energy), its majestic allure and the exaltation of a perfectly mastered beauty, this statue strongly reflects the approach of the most powerful Komyen diviners who, to assert their powers, commissioned the most eloquent sculptures.
To approach, to admire, Baule art is to consider the particular and specific visual culture of this society.
Nian dan, meaning to stare at a work of art, is socially unacceptable; "in the visual practice of the Baoulé, looking at a work of art, or at objects of spiritual significance, is most of the time a privilege and a potential danger." (Susan
Vogel, From the Visible to the Invisible, Art and Visual Culture, page 110).
As Boyer (in Joubert, 2016, p.136) and Bernard de Grunne (In Fischer & Homberger, 2015, p.84) point out, with only 5% of examples depicted in a seated position, the rarity of the seated woman sums up the Baoule aesthetic concept in a delicate way. Through its beauty, its sacred symbolic power and its rare posture seated on a stool, it unites the sacred object with the everyday object, two conceptions that are very different from one another.
According to oral tradition, the Akan people from
Ghana introduced the art of goldsmithing to Côte d'Ivoire in the
18th century.
At the heart of Akan mythology, the beings and objects that populate the universe are creatures of Odumankaman and man. Odumankaman created non-material beings and objects, and Odumankaman creates material beings and objects.
In the first group, the Akan classify speech, spirits, genies and air. In the second, they mention water, earth, stone, metals, elements of flora, elements of fauna and humans. The Creator of the Universe also created animate and inanimate beings. All these creatures came into being before man, and all these creatures are beings that are born, live and die.
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