Sculpture - Wood - Senufo - Ivory Coast

A female Senufo statue, village Dikodougou, Ivory Coast, used for the ceremony-dance, sitting on four legged stool, short feet, sturdy legs leading to prominent buttocks, a slender, flaring pointed torso with pointed navel and forward standing tapering breasts, broad and powerful shoulders leading to elongated slightly angled arms, the hands are resting on the thighs, each upper arm and wrist is surrounded by a carved bangle, notched back line, the long thick neck with a necklace around it is supporting an spherical head, the protruding mouth is open showing teeth, beneath a slender curved nose, the nose is connected with the eyebrows, bulging coffee-bean shaped eyes, heavy wood, brown patina with traces of age and long lasting ritual use, several cracks. Provenance Mohamed Belo Garba. Lit. : Burkhard Gottschalk: Senufo. Massa und die Statuen des Poro, 2002; Staatliche Museen der Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Museum für Völkerkunde Berlin, Die Kunst der Senufo, Elfenbeinküste. Mit einem Beitrag von Till Förster, 1990; Museum Rietberg Zürich, Die Kunst der Senufo aus Schweizer Sammlungen, 1988; Susan Elizabeth Gagliardi: Senufo unbound. Dynamics of art and identity in West Africa, Cleveland 2015.