Lot Essay
Inscribed near the bottom - N 409, No. 7
Hole near the bottom of the base
Among the acknowledged masterworks of African sculpture, only a handful have remained in private hands. This female Senufo rhythm pounder is one of them. To establish its greatness, one need only refer to Robert Goldwater, the distinguished art historian who was the Director of the Museum of Primitive Art in New York during its first decade and the author of the seminal study Primitivism in Modern Art. In 1963 he organized the exhibition "Senufo Sculpture from West Africa" and wrote its catalogue. In it, he begins his analysis of the rhythm pounder by describing this very object:
"One of the finest of Senufo works (and indeed of African
sculpture generally) is a tall female figure with short,
spindle legs and feet apparently sunk in a heavy cylindrical
base, now in the collection of Madame Helena Rubinstein in
Paris. The flow of its slender limbs and torso, the curved
silhouette repeated in chin, breasts, belly and forearms, the
limpid contraction and swelling of its parts and the rhythm of
its spatial intervals--all these fuse into a striking unity.
The dark surface of a smooth and polished patina is set off by
bands of colored seeds and white cowries on the head, the chest,
the arms and around the low waist. It is a work that crystallizes the image of a style."
In addition to its undeniable aesthetic qualities, the Rubinstein figure is accompanied by provenance that is unusually complete and of the sort not found with most African works. It was collected by F.-H. Lem, an explorer, collector, and sometime anthropologist, who first visited the Senufo area in 1924 concentrating on villages in the north around Sikasso. He collected his first objects at that time, among which was a figure similar to this one. He returned to Africa several times, gradually acquiring fine sculptures from both the Senufo peoples and the neighboring Bamana and Dogon. In 1935, he revisited the Sikasso region where he found this great work of art.
Twenty years later, Lem would express his appreciation of Senufo art in an introduction to an exhibition of African Art at the Brooklyn Museum by writing, "Aesthetic specimens of Senufo wood carvings...present one of the most attractive, if not the highest aspects of Negro plastic art" (Brooklyn Museum of Art, 1954). Fine as the other figures are in this group, it is evident that Lem immediately recognized the primacy of the Rubinstein sculpture over the others when he chose it to be the first example to be published of this type of African art in 1948.
His account includes a description of the ritual use of such objects. He states that they were used in association with an initiation society, now called Poro, that they were carried by one of the members, and "used to give rhythm to the evolutions of the dancers" (Lem, 1948, p. 44). From this reference, they have become popularly known as rhythm pounders. This term however, is misleading, because it only ascribes one use to these remarkable works and neglects any reference to their symbolic significance.
Subsequent research and fieldwork has shown that they were carved in male and female pairs to represent the Senufo primordial couple. They are referred to as Pombilele, "those who give birth" by Anita Glaze who worked among the Senufo in 1969 and 1970. In her subsequent study, she writes of them as follows: "the couple represent the ideal social unit, the 'reborn' initiated man and woman as the ideal standard of social, moral, and intellectual formation, the reverence for the ancestral lineages of Poro graduates who have 'suffered' for the group during their lifetime" (quoted in Cole, 1987, p. 33)
They were displayed at memorial ceremonies for ranking elders of both sexes and occasionally at coming of age rites. Initiates carried them and struck them on the ground and swayed them from side to side to mark the rhythm of the dances at which they were shown. At other times the figures would simply stand as witnesses to the ceremonies.
While a number of Senufo rhythm pounders are known today, this figure belongs to a small group limited to some half a dozen examples that are from an earlier period. Mr. Lem himself referred to them as "very old", and the smooth, even patination and deep rich brown color indicates that they were used and handled on many different occasions. Because of their ritual significance and symbolic importance to the Senufo people, they were carefully kept in sacred precincts when at rest and protected from termite and water damage, and other depredations of the environment. From their present condition and evidence of considerable use prior to collection from as early as 1924, this corpus can safely be dated to the middle of the nineteenth century if not slightly earlier.
These figures have long been admired outside of Africa because they adhere to universal aesthetic principles. They are beautifully balanced, elegant in their gracefully elongated forms and quietly commanding in their confident expressions. They gain additional significance from the way in which they express the values of the Senufo culture itself. Certain African human masks and figure sculptures were made as tangible expressions of the values of tradition and permanence and the benefits of civilized society. They exude authority, wisdom, and experience but at the same time burst with youth and spiritual vitality. These faces and figures represent beings who are in the prime of life. Their appearance reinforces their cultural function in transmitting these philosophies to the people who believe in them. The corpus of rhythm pounders can be ranked as among the most successful of African sculptures in achieving this end.
All of the Pomibele belonging to this particular set were made by master sculptors, but this one was created by a genius. He knew the stylistic components to be included in the works he carved as the result of years of apprenticeship and a lifelong exposure to Poro belief and ceremony. When he made this figure, he drew upon his own artistic sensibilities and pushed this expression to its formal limits without exceeding them. With its sweeping, subtle, and elegant interplaying forms, the figure becomes an embodiment of the spirituality, life and rhythms that were the core of its ceremonial context. The long concave shape of the back, the broad rounded shoulders, the double curves of the abdomen and elongated arms, the downward arcs of the breasts and the beautifully forward thrusting face impart both an inner and outer vitality to this exceptional work. An additional element of magic is given by the addition of red seeds, embedded in a waxy substance that still remain at the waist, elbows, back, chest, and abdomen, and form the coiffure.
One last historical note serves to stress the significance of this figure as an icon of African art. Through its publication by Lem in 1948 and its exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum in 1955 as a part of the Helena Rubinstein collection, it was already highly regarded by specialists and the public alike. In 1960, it was reproduced in the landmark publication by William Fagg and Eliot Elisofon, The Sculpture of Africa, where it was shown on a double spread covering six views of the figure. Following its publication by Robert Goldwater in the Senufo catalogue for the Museum of Primitive Art three years later, it was auctioned in New York at the Helena Rubinstein sale. When the eminent dealer Sidney Janis purchased it on that day in 1966, it disappeared from public view. Few had any idea that this Senufo rhythm pounder had been acquired by the distinguished late Ambassador Burden, who must have been moved by her strong aesthetics after years of collecting Twentieth Century Art and his tenure as President of the Museum of Modern Art in New York. There was some concern at the time that it might have been permanently lost. Its sudden reemergence from a private collection marks the return of a great monument of African art to the world at large and to the scholars and connoisseurs, who had been deprived of its beneficent presence for an entire generation.
Hole near the bottom of the base
Among the acknowledged masterworks of African sculpture, only a handful have remained in private hands. This female Senufo rhythm pounder is one of them. To establish its greatness, one need only refer to Robert Goldwater, the distinguished art historian who was the Director of the Museum of Primitive Art in New York during its first decade and the author of the seminal study Primitivism in Modern Art. In 1963 he organized the exhibition "Senufo Sculpture from West Africa" and wrote its catalogue. In it, he begins his analysis of the rhythm pounder by describing this very object:
"One of the finest of Senufo works (and indeed of African
sculpture generally) is a tall female figure with short,
spindle legs and feet apparently sunk in a heavy cylindrical
base, now in the collection of Madame Helena Rubinstein in
Paris. The flow of its slender limbs and torso, the curved
silhouette repeated in chin, breasts, belly and forearms, the
limpid contraction and swelling of its parts and the rhythm of
its spatial intervals--all these fuse into a striking unity.
The dark surface of a smooth and polished patina is set off by
bands of colored seeds and white cowries on the head, the chest,
the arms and around the low waist. It is a work that crystallizes the image of a style."
In addition to its undeniable aesthetic qualities, the Rubinstein figure is accompanied by provenance that is unusually complete and of the sort not found with most African works. It was collected by F.-H. Lem, an explorer, collector, and sometime anthropologist, who first visited the Senufo area in 1924 concentrating on villages in the north around Sikasso. He collected his first objects at that time, among which was a figure similar to this one. He returned to Africa several times, gradually acquiring fine sculptures from both the Senufo peoples and the neighboring Bamana and Dogon. In 1935, he revisited the Sikasso region where he found this great work of art.
Twenty years later, Lem would express his appreciation of Senufo art in an introduction to an exhibition of African Art at the Brooklyn Museum by writing, "Aesthetic specimens of Senufo wood carvings...present one of the most attractive, if not the highest aspects of Negro plastic art" (Brooklyn Museum of Art, 1954). Fine as the other figures are in this group, it is evident that Lem immediately recognized the primacy of the Rubinstein sculpture over the others when he chose it to be the first example to be published of this type of African art in 1948.
His account includes a description of the ritual use of such objects. He states that they were used in association with an initiation society, now called Poro, that they were carried by one of the members, and "used to give rhythm to the evolutions of the dancers" (Lem, 1948, p. 44). From this reference, they have become popularly known as rhythm pounders. This term however, is misleading, because it only ascribes one use to these remarkable works and neglects any reference to their symbolic significance.
Subsequent research and fieldwork has shown that they were carved in male and female pairs to represent the Senufo primordial couple. They are referred to as Pombilele, "those who give birth" by Anita Glaze who worked among the Senufo in 1969 and 1970. In her subsequent study, she writes of them as follows: "the couple represent the ideal social unit, the 'reborn' initiated man and woman as the ideal standard of social, moral, and intellectual formation, the reverence for the ancestral lineages of Poro graduates who have 'suffered' for the group during their lifetime" (quoted in Cole, 1987, p. 33)
They were displayed at memorial ceremonies for ranking elders of both sexes and occasionally at coming of age rites. Initiates carried them and struck them on the ground and swayed them from side to side to mark the rhythm of the dances at which they were shown. At other times the figures would simply stand as witnesses to the ceremonies.
While a number of Senufo rhythm pounders are known today, this figure belongs to a small group limited to some half a dozen examples that are from an earlier period. Mr. Lem himself referred to them as "very old", and the smooth, even patination and deep rich brown color indicates that they were used and handled on many different occasions. Because of their ritual significance and symbolic importance to the Senufo people, they were carefully kept in sacred precincts when at rest and protected from termite and water damage, and other depredations of the environment. From their present condition and evidence of considerable use prior to collection from as early as 1924, this corpus can safely be dated to the middle of the nineteenth century if not slightly earlier.
These figures have long been admired outside of Africa because they adhere to universal aesthetic principles. They are beautifully balanced, elegant in their gracefully elongated forms and quietly commanding in their confident expressions. They gain additional significance from the way in which they express the values of the Senufo culture itself. Certain African human masks and figure sculptures were made as tangible expressions of the values of tradition and permanence and the benefits of civilized society. They exude authority, wisdom, and experience but at the same time burst with youth and spiritual vitality. These faces and figures represent beings who are in the prime of life. Their appearance reinforces their cultural function in transmitting these philosophies to the people who believe in them. The corpus of rhythm pounders can be ranked as among the most successful of African sculptures in achieving this end.
All of the Pomibele belonging to this particular set were made by master sculptors, but this one was created by a genius. He knew the stylistic components to be included in the works he carved as the result of years of apprenticeship and a lifelong exposure to Poro belief and ceremony. When he made this figure, he drew upon his own artistic sensibilities and pushed this expression to its formal limits without exceeding them. With its sweeping, subtle, and elegant interplaying forms, the figure becomes an embodiment of the spirituality, life and rhythms that were the core of its ceremonial context. The long concave shape of the back, the broad rounded shoulders, the double curves of the abdomen and elongated arms, the downward arcs of the breasts and the beautifully forward thrusting face impart both an inner and outer vitality to this exceptional work. An additional element of magic is given by the addition of red seeds, embedded in a waxy substance that still remain at the waist, elbows, back, chest, and abdomen, and form the coiffure.
One last historical note serves to stress the significance of this figure as an icon of African art. Through its publication by Lem in 1948 and its exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum in 1955 as a part of the Helena Rubinstein collection, it was already highly regarded by specialists and the public alike. In 1960, it was reproduced in the landmark publication by William Fagg and Eliot Elisofon, The Sculpture of Africa, where it was shown on a double spread covering six views of the figure. Following its publication by Robert Goldwater in the Senufo catalogue for the Museum of Primitive Art three years later, it was auctioned in New York at the Helena Rubinstein sale. When the eminent dealer Sidney Janis purchased it on that day in 1966, it disappeared from public view. Few had any idea that this Senufo rhythm pounder had been acquired by the distinguished late Ambassador Burden, who must have been moved by her strong aesthetics after years of collecting Twentieth Century Art and his tenure as President of the Museum of Modern Art in New York. There was some concern at the time that it might have been permanently lost. Its sudden reemergence from a private collection marks the return of a great monument of African art to the world at large and to the scholars and connoisseurs, who had been deprived of its beneficent presence for an entire generation.