Baule - Côte d'Ivoire (No Reserve Price)

A male Baule sculpture, Ivory Coast, posted on a base, sitting on a three-legged stool with a base that extends to his feet, a slender torso with a pointed navel, rounded shoulders leading to fragile arms withthe hands gently resting on the knees, ton each side of the shoulder, small scarification, an ovoid concave face with a braided goatee, a small mouth beneath a long nose, round eyes, oval ears with a prominent tragus, a fine grooved hairline and a sophisticated striated domed coiffure with a ponytail at the back of the head; signs use, minor scratches. Certificate of origin and provenance.

“To articulate historians, the most consistent features of Baule art is a kind of peaceful containment. Faces tend to have downcast eyes and figures most often hold their ams against the body. […] Among their abundant art forms, the Baule people continue to place the greatest value on masks and figure sculptures, which remain the only sculptural art still widely used in Baule villages. While there is a difference between the Baule view of their objects and that of Western connoisseurs, there are points of agreement. Aesthetic appreciation is one: Baule artist, and individual owners of objects, certainly sometimes enjoy the beauty of these objects and the skill it took coproduce them. […]

Ornaments above the face are chosen for their beauty and have no iconographic significance” p. 141.

Lit: Baule: African Art, Western Eyes. Susan M. Vogel 1997.