10 - Anthropomorphic fetish

Anthropomorphic fetish with extremely simplified features Hardwood, very old crusty patina and weathering. Dagara, Burkina Faso. 52 x 24.5 cm Provenance: Flak Gallery, 2004. Formerly in the Michel Vinaver collection. Ferri & Associés auction, “Les Mondes de Michel Vinaver,” Drouot, Paris, December 9, 2022, lot 198. This figure forms an inverted Y-shaped silhouette, topped by a round head. Reduced to a few essential forms, the body takes on a unique expression, straddling the line between figuration and abstraction. The work can be compared to the effigies of male Dagara ancestors studied by Roger Somé, whose forked shape is one of their distinctive features. General Bibliography: Roger Somé, “Lobi and Dagara Sculpture from Burkina Faso: A Question of Aesthetics,” in Michèle Fiéloux, Jacques Lombard, and Jeanne-Marie Kambou-Ferrand (eds.), Images of Africa and the Social Sciences: The Lobi, Birifor, and Dagara Peoples, Paris, ORSTOM–Karthala, 1993, pp. 398–411, particularly p. 400.