23 - Grand fétiche médicinal Montol, Nigeria

Grand fétiche médicinal Montol, Nigeria Wood, numerous fragments H. 78.5 cm With a presence as impressive as it is intriguing, this large Montol male figure stands out for the scale of its proportions and its sculptural language of rare radicalism. Standing on powerful, widely splayed legs, it features a deliberately stripped-down body: a massive pelvis, a narrow torso, broad shoulders, and an undulating abdomen that appears accentuated and almost contorted. The heightened tension of the body is conveyed by the movement of the hunched shoulders and the striking gesture of the face leaning forward. Associated with the male Komtin society, Montol figures played a key role in healing and divination rituals intended to determine the origin of illnesses. Community specimens were kept in the dodo, ritual spaces where they received libations and where samples were taken. Through its extreme simplification, its sculptural scale, and the tension between its masses and recesses, this work occupies a unique place within the Montol corpus, whose styles vary significantly depending on the sculptor. Its exceptional scale, radical simplicity, and almost abstract construction—skillfully combining monumentality with surprising lightness—remarkably distinguish this sculpture from the rest of the body of work. Provenance - Guilhem Montagut Gallery, Spain - Jan Calmeyn Collection, Belgium Littérature Further Reading Central Nigeria Unmasked: Arts of the Benue River Valley, exhibition catalog [Los Angeles, Fowler Museum, February 13–July 24, 2011], Fowler Museum at UCLA, 2011, esp. p. 282 Three Rivers of Nigeria: Art of the Lower Niger, Cross, and Benue from the Collection of William and Robert Arnett, exhibition catalog [Atlanta, The High Museum of Art, 1978], Atlanta, 1978