Lot n° 374
Estimation :
10000 - 15000
EUR
Result with fees
Result
: 14 950EUR
Mfondo mask, Lwalwa, - Lot 374
Mfondo mask, Lwalwa,
Democratic Republic of the Congo
Early 20th century
Carved wood and pigments
H. 31 cm
Provenance :
Sotheby's London, November 28, 1983, lot 45,
Seymour & Alyce Lazar Collection, Palm Springs, California acquired at the above sale
Sotheby's New York, October 2022, lot 79
Lwalwa! Say my name again! Lwalwa this intriguing name, surprising as much for your radical plastic conception, pure, surprising, as much as for your volumes, you, Lwalwa, fashioned in wood in the middle of the arid immensity between Western Kasai and Angola.
Lwalwa, that double resonance, that repetition of consonances. We repeat your intriguing name as we approach you, captivated, captivated, like Arman, by this resonance, by your bold formal power, uncluttered, direct, frontal. By the geometric design of your face, with its voluminous features.
Imposing. This resonance, the resonance of your form, the resonance of your name, which echoed so powerfully that it inspired the creation of modernist geniuses...
So powerful, you, destined to initiate the young men of society, that you transcended time, from Giacometti's skull symbolizing vanity, the strength of thought, and our temporality you became timeless.
Immortal in breathing into other generations of sculptors the universal breath of the essential summed up in such perfect formal conception.
Immortal in crossing generations, continents and inspiring us all.
Picasso found his way in your genius "I forced myself to stay, to examine these masks... that men had executed with a sacred purpose... it's not an aesthetic process, it's a form of magic... the day I understood this, I knew I had found my way." (Picasso on the masks of Africa- Propos sur l'art, Picasso, p.120-121, 1965)
To the point of making you exist through her brush, in ancient myths, the face of Ulysses and the sirens is yours... that of Marie Thérèse Walter, in her multiple portraits with their vertical nose belongs to you...(in. Ruban, primitivism. 1984, Vol I, p.324).
They have given you back your universal, timeless character, transcended you, honored you and shown their gratitude to the genius of your existence, offering them a different viewpoint, a new conception of the representation of creation, liberated by you and thanks to you, from formal conventions and codes of representation.
Lwalwa, your name resonates like the power of your form, your cubist construction, resolutely avant-garde, across time, continents and artistic movements.
Your features resonate powerfully, surprising architecture just like your name! A remarkable hymn to geometric shapes. A skilful arrangement of volumes and planes. The tension of the lines, suggesting two strict axialities, contrasts and reveals the sensuality of the curves outlining the oval shape of your face.
Intended for transmission, transition and initiation of young boys in Ngongo society, you were also a mediator between worlds, hence the clear, vertical axiality of your nose, intensely accentuated in relief and dimension. Your nose symbolizes fertile profusion and elevation, in reference to the hornbill bird according to Ceyssens (in. Mirac. 1995, p.327).
According to field notes by Maesen (ca.1939) and Karel Timmermans, who catalogued your pairs, you would be of the nvonbo or mfondo type, with a fine triangular nose rising to the top of the forehead and joining the headdress known as shinsompolo.
Your wide-set rectangular eyes, highlighted with kaolin, intensify your presence while suggesting your sense of observation, discernment and attention to the world of the living...
Kerchache testifies to your appearance "during dances governed by complex choreography" intended to "appease the ancestors' spirits and compel them to intervene". (Kerchache, Paudrat, Stéphan, L'art africain, 2008, p.561).
The audacious strength of your volumes and cubist forms is matched by the power of your role in invoking the ancestors and initiating young people. A powerful mediator, a sacred conduit of knowledge, a protector in touch with the spirits of the ancients, your universal beauty is timeless.
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