Female figure · Côte d'Ivoire, Atié · ID: 3041260
Maria Wyss, Basel, Switzerland
Description
wood, brown patina, dignified upright posture, extremely long neck, disc-shaped flattened coiffure with four horn-like projecting lobes, min. dam., cracks, slight traces of abrasion, on wooden base;
figures like the present represent spirits or ancestors and were most likely used in a rite called “logbu”. But only few is known, because within the short period of time from 1910 up to 1930 they got out of usage. In 1914 the famous liberian prophet William Harris reached the Ivory Coast and his burning speeches affected whole tribes to abandon their statues and old rites. As a consequence of this a great number of statues from the laguna region were destroyed and only a few examples survived in museums or private collections.
The object Female figure with the object ID 3041260 was part of the auction 84th Tribal Art Auction on November 5, 2016. The object with the lot number 179 achieved a sales price of EUR 8,500 with an asking price of EUR 7,000.
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Comparing literature
Phillips, Tom (Hg.), Afrika, Die Kunst eines Kontinents, Berlin 1996, p. 448