A female Senufo Rhythm Pounder, called Deblé,from the region of Kanoroba, the legs uprising from a cylindrical base, the slender torso with firm tapering breasts, long arms forming a slender O, abstract hands touching the hips, radiating scarifications around the navel, further linear ones on the breasts and face, the elongated head sits on an equally very long and thin neck, the small ears are half circles and appear attached, as do the narrow nose with its round tip and the eyes which are fully rimmed and nearly round, everything is highly abstract and stylized, even the iroquoise-like hairstyle seems to be attached, the statue breathes a quiet elegance and strength; on the coiffure some insect bite, exremly hard and heavy Sankolo wood with incrustations, a fine dark-brown touch patina in particular on the upper arms, the neck and the abdomen. Provenance Mohamed Belo Garba.

"Senufo artists carved this large wooden spirit figure, which is known as a deble [day-blay], or "bush spirit." Deble figures can be male or female, and they are used in special rituals that take place at initiations, agricultural ceremonies, and funerals. During a funeral, honored groups of people stand in rows on sacred ground and, while holding the spirit figures at the elbows, slowly pound them on the earth. The dull sounds invite the souls of deceased ancestors, the "living dead", to participate in the ceremonies. The sounds also purifies the earth. This action is only one part of a ritual activity that also includes music and dance." Source: Dallas Museum of Arts.

 Lit.: Anita J. Glaze, Art and Death in a Senufo Village, Indiana University Press, Bloomington 1981. William Rubin, Primitivism in 20th Century Art, Affinity of the Tribal and the Modern, New York, 1984. Homberger, Lorenz, Die Kunst der Senufo aus Schweizer Sammlungen. Texte von Till Förster, 1988. Hans-Joachim Koloss, Till Förster, Die Kunst der Senufo, Elfenbeinküste, 1979. Museum für Völkerkunde, Berlin, Burkhard Gottschalk Senoufo. Massa et les Statues du Poro, Düsseldorf, Verlag U. Gottschalk, 2002. Susan Elizabeth Gagliardi, Senufo unbound. Dynamics of art and identity in West Africa, Cleveland 2015. Till Förster, Smoothing the Way of the Dead, A Senufo Rhythm Pounder, Yale University Art Gallery Bulletin, 2005.

sold

Height: 114 cm
Weight: 8,9 kg