Reliquiary figure "mbulu-ngulu" ·  Gabon, Kota, Obamba or Mindumu group · ID: 3044266

Description

wood, brass and copper sheet, metal nails and -clamps, base

A work of the same artist was offered in 1973 at Sotheby’s London (Lot 304).

The reliquiary figures from eastern Gabon and neighbouring Congo are creations that have particularly appealed to lovers of African and modern art from the moment it was “discovered” in the early 20th century.
Although their appearance differs greatly from those of the Kota and Mahongwe groups to the “byeri” figures of the Fang groups, they had all the same function as conceptual “tombstones” and “mobile” cemetaries. They were generally attached to baskets or round boxes of bark in which relics such as fragments of the skull, bones, and other mementos of the honoured deceased were placed.

Kota art is based on an aesthetic of frontality, in which votive portraits of ancestral lineages in high relief exist in a two-dimensional space with no attempt to suggest a resemblance. The approach is distinctive in African art. The design of the effigies, inspired by the visions of the sculptor and not by a memory of the individuals depicted, is more an expression of a symbolic code than a visual reminder. They are images of eternity whose role is to maintain an ongoing link between the living and the dead.

The object Reliquiary figure “mbulu-ngulu” with the object ID 3044266 was last part of the auction 89th Tribal Art Auction at July 7, 2018 on Zemanek-Münster Auction house and had the lot number 333.

You can find more Figures and other popular object types on our related topic pages. You may also be interested in our page on African art.

Comparing literature

Chaffin, Francois & Alain, L'Art Kota, Meudon o. J., p. 224, ill. 125 Perrois, Louis, Kota Ancestors, Paris 2011, p. 59, ill.16 Perrois, Louis, The Kota figures in the Paolo Morigi Collection, In: Sotheby's, Paris, 6 December 2005, p. 78 f.

Publications

Schlag, Adrian, Tribal Art Classics, Brussels 2013, p. 16

AHDRC: 0014290