Null BAOULE COUPLE, Ivory Coast

Wood with dark brown and black patina, pigments…
Description

BAOULE COUPLE, Ivory Coast Wood with dark brown and black patina, pigments, metal, accidents. H. 55 cm and 58.5 cm Rare couple of Baule statues sitting on traditional seats. The female effigy's hands rest on her knees, a bracelet adorning her left wrist. Her heavy chest suggests a plural maternity. The male sculpture frames the umbilicus, described as a short projection, with both hands. The hieratic faces of both are drawn in fine, almost pinched lines: soberly protruding palpebral folds, delicate lips. Keloids spread graphically over the busts, faces and necks. The high-shelled hairstyles are described with refinement, a lateral braid following the hemmed line of the ears. At the root of the hair and above the foreheads, a short metal hook. Deeply inlaid and a mark of ancient use, a dark luster permeates both sculptures. According to Susan Vogel (cf. Baule Art, p. 236), the pairs of statues represent the ideal couple, both morally and physically: the bulging muscles reflect endurance at work in particular, and the care given to the hairstyle and scarifications an aesthetic desire. These objects were used in pairs during divinatory rites performed by the fetishist. Here, the characteristic separation between the shoulder and the biceps, with a line that continues in our examples to draw the shoulder blades, makes it possible to identify a workshop that was active in Côte d'Ivoire from the 1920s until the 1950s. According to Susan Vogel, the treatment of this line high on the shoulder is characteristic of the oldest productions (In For Spirits and Kings - African Art from the Tishman Collection, p. 74). Similarly, the seats on which the effigies are described are of an archaic type. The space between the seat and the figures also allowed for the addition of a cloth loincloth, which was replaced in later productions by a carved representation (Ibid, p. 75). This set is remarkable in every way, as it has been identified as belonging to a corpus that entered American and European collections in the early 20th century. See For Spirits and Kings - African Art from the Tishman Collection, p. 74, fig. a female sculpture from the same workshop.

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BAOULE COUPLE, Ivory Coast Wood with dark brown and black patina, pigments, metal, accidents. H. 55 cm and 58.5 cm Rare couple of Baule statues sitting on traditional seats. The female effigy's hands rest on her knees, a bracelet adorning her left wrist. Her heavy chest suggests a plural maternity. The male sculpture frames the umbilicus, described as a short projection, with both hands. The hieratic faces of both are drawn in fine, almost pinched lines: soberly protruding palpebral folds, delicate lips. Keloids spread graphically over the busts, faces and necks. The high-shelled hairstyles are described with refinement, a lateral braid following the hemmed line of the ears. At the root of the hair and above the foreheads, a short metal hook. Deeply inlaid and a mark of ancient use, a dark luster permeates both sculptures. According to Susan Vogel (cf. Baule Art, p. 236), the pairs of statues represent the ideal couple, both morally and physically: the bulging muscles reflect endurance at work in particular, and the care given to the hairstyle and scarifications an aesthetic desire. These objects were used in pairs during divinatory rites performed by the fetishist. Here, the characteristic separation between the shoulder and the biceps, with a line that continues in our examples to draw the shoulder blades, makes it possible to identify a workshop that was active in Côte d'Ivoire from the 1920s until the 1950s. According to Susan Vogel, the treatment of this line high on the shoulder is characteristic of the oldest productions (In For Spirits and Kings - African Art from the Tishman Collection, p. 74). Similarly, the seats on which the effigies are described are of an archaic type. The space between the seat and the figures also allowed for the addition of a cloth loincloth, which was replaced in later productions by a carved representation (Ibid, p. 75). This set is remarkable in every way, as it has been identified as belonging to a corpus that entered American and European collections in the early 20th century. See For Spirits and Kings - African Art from the Tishman Collection, p. 74, fig. a female sculpture from the same workshop.

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