Gurunsi statue, Burkina Faso Made of wood. Dimensions: 76.5 x 12.5 x 9.5 cm Provenance: Private collection, Paris: Private collection, Paris Renaud Vanuxem, Paris Like the statuary of the neighboring Lobi, Gurunsi effigies have a crusty patina and are used for divinatory and therapeutic practices. This small, rare corpus is similar to Nuna objects from a nearby region. Gurunsi also share common features, such as the crusty patina, with Lobi statues, but are more sophisticated in their decoration and finish. Carved in dense, rough wood, the male effigy is animated by a quiet strength rendered by its slender dimension, its legs whose lower limbs have disappeared, the wood gullied, seem infinitely long. Firmly curved, with rounded pelvis and buttocks, rounded belly and flattened upper torso, revealing small, square shoulders. The thick, almost non-existent neck supports a face with strong, powerful features reinforced by a subtle interplay of relief planes and concave and convex shapes. The concave shape of the lower face accentuates the pout of the small, forward-projected mouth, and the circular, high-relief eyes, whose intensity is heightened by a linear, raised arch of the eyebrows. The figure is topped with a summit crest.