A male Baule figure in a posture typical for this ethnic group, on the elongated torso the arms lie close to the body with the hands right next to the protruding navel. Strong legs on a damaged round base, the right foot is missing, a loincloth covers the genital area. A very long neck supports a flattened triangularly tapering face. The back of the head is missing a piece of the dark patina, which is heavily encrusted in places.

"To the Western eye, an essence of Baule style is a balanced asymmetry that enlivens while suggesting stability and calm. [...] To an art historian, the most consistent feature of Baule art, and one expressed across the wide variety of Baule object types, is a kind of peaceful containment. Faces tend to have downcast eyes and figures often hold their arms against the body, so that Westerners might feel that the mood of much classical Baule art is introspective." Susan Vogel

Lit.: Baule. African Art, Western Eyes, Susan Vogel, 1994; Pierre Meauzé, L'art nègre: sculpture, Paris 1967, p. 64, no. 1; Margaret Trowell and Hans Nevermann, African and Oceanic Art, New York, 1968, p. 105. John McKesson, "La Collection de Robert Rubin", Arts d'Afrique Noire, no. 71, Autumn 1989, p. 14.

sold

Height: 49 cm
Weight: 1,2 kg