Post-shaped memorial sculpture ·  Éthiopie, Konso · ID: 3032975

Description

wood, greyish brown patina, enlivened by the contrary arrangement of the figures arms, the right one up and the left one down, resting on the accentuated male gender, traces of old age and weathering, cracks, on plate;
like the Gato, the Konso used pole-shaped memorial post sculptures, carved for important deceased personalities and the enemies killed by them. But whereas the Gato carve these posts only as memorials of the dead the Konso also produce them for the living and sometimes for themselves personally - together with prestige attributes which mark their position in the society.

Littérature comparée

Schädler, Karl-Ferdinand, Lexikon Afrikanische Kunst und Kultur, München, Berlin 1994, p. 235