MALI

Details

Statuette Bamana
Bamana figure
Mali
Hauteur: 62 cm. (24½ in.)

Provenance

Mathias Komor, New York, 1950
Edith Gregor Halpert, New York, acquise auprès de ce dernier
Collection privée américaine

Special notice

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Post lot text

The Halpert figure was created for the Jo cult and represents 'the beautiful young women of the Jo'. Young men, newly initiated, carry their statues for several months to neighboring villages to advertise to adulthood status and readiness for marriage. The sculpture, called Nyeleni or Joneyleni, characterizes all of the physical qualities, symbolic of her inner virtues, desirable in a young woman at the height of her physical powers (Salia Malé in Colleyn, ed., Bamana, 2001, 143).From the Central Bamana Region, highly cubistic, the Halpert figure is related to the famous work in the New Orleans Museum of Art, Victor Kiam Collection, ibid., p. 146, number 131.

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Lot Essay

La statuette Halpert fut créée pour le culte de Jo et représente "une belle jeune femme de Jo". Les jeunes hommes, fraîchement initiés, portent leurs sculptures pendant plusieurs mois dans les villages voisins pour annoncer leur passage à l'âge adulte et qu'ils sont prêts à se marier. La sculpture, appelée Nyeleni ou Joneyleni, présente toutes les qualités physiques, symboles de ses vertus intrinsèques, désirables chez une jeune femme et la hauteur de ses pouvoirs physiques (Salia Malé in Colleyn, ed., Bamana, 2001, 143). Provenant de la région centrale bamana, la statuette Halpert, particulièrement cubiste est comparable à une célèbre sculpture conservée au New Orleans Museum of Art, Collection Victor Kiam, ibid., p. 146, n.131.

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3 AugArticle

MALI

Lot Essay

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