Description
Mumuye statue, Nigeria Wood H. 83 cm Provenance : Paul and Jacqueline Canfère collection acquired from Jean-Michel Huguenin (according to oral information from descendants). Groups of sedentary farmers, amalgamated under the name of mumuye, live in the mountainous region of northeastern Nigeria, south of the Benue River. Originally figurative sculptures of great geometric abstraction, whose movements are accentuated by the disproportion and length of the limbs, by the characteristic void between the arms and the bust, by the marked size and by the general asymmetry. Small stylized face, barely emerging from a large headdress. Their multiple functions were reported by Arnold G. Rubin and Charles Kingsley. Depending on the case, they were used for therapeutic, divinatory or prestige purposes, serving to reinforce the power of the owner.
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Mumuye statue, Nigeria Wood H. 83 cm Provenance : Paul and Jacqueline Canfère collection acquired from Jean-Michel Huguenin (according to oral information from descendants). Groups of sedentary farmers, amalgamated under the name of mumuye, live in the mountainous region of northeastern Nigeria, south of the Benue River. Originally figurative sculptures of great geometric abstraction, whose movements are accentuated by the disproportion and length of the limbs, by the characteristic void between the arms and the bust, by the marked size and by the general asymmetry. Small stylized face, barely emerging from a large headdress. Their multiple functions were reported by Arnold G. Rubin and Charles Kingsley. Depending on the case, they were used for therapeutic, divinatory or prestige purposes, serving to reinforce the power of the owner.
