Dance staff "oshe shango" ·  Nigeria, Yoruba, Igbomina, "Master of the Owu Shango shrine" · ID: 3049093

Description

wood, pigments, base

Working with William Fagg and other scholars of Yoruba art, Deborah & Jeffrey Stokes Hammer were able to identify the style of an artist who they believe can be counted among the finest carving masters in African art.

After an unusually conceived “shango” staff of excellent quality documented in a 1964 photograph by John Picton taken at a shrine in the small Igbomina village of Owu, they named the carver “Master of the Owu Shango Shrine” (cf. AHDRC 0105025).

William Fagg has speculated that this artist lived sometime in the 1850s to circa 1925 in the Igbomina Yoruba region.

The present staff shows great similarities with the staff from Owu, both formally and stylistically, especially in the physiognomy of the figures with their strongly bulging eyes. The double axe shows an unusual crescent shape and is carved with faces at both ends. It is crowned by a kneeling pair of figures.

In the meantime many other works by this hand, mainly “ibeji” figures, have appeared (cf. African Arts,1986, XIX-2, p. 71).

The object Dance staff “oshe shango” with the object ID 3049093 was part of the auction 99th Auction on November 12, 2022. The object with the lot number 120 achieved a sales price of EUR 4,000 with an asking price of EUR 2,500.

Here you will find more objects and interesting facts about African art.

Comparing literature

African Arts, Vol.XIX, Nr.2, February 1986, p.70-73

Publications

AHDRC: 0104697