About the lot N° 158
Title : A Superb Dogon, Wakara Style, Female Ancestor Figure, Mali
Size : measurements note height 27 1/2 in. 69.9 cm Provenance : Lance and Roberta Entwistle, LondonRosemary and George Lois, New York, acquired from the above before 1989Literature : Warren Roberts and Nancy Nooter, African Art in American Collections, Washington/London, 1989, p. 58, fig. 17Notes : PROPERTY FROM A NEW YORK PRIVATE COLLECTIONWithin the broad corpus of Dogon statuary, examples of the Wakara sub-style are exceedingly rare. For three other figures by the same hand cf. Wick and Denner (2009: VII, no. 9, also published in Leloup 1994: pl. 99), Musée Dapper (2008: 12), and Sotheby's, Paris, June 11, 2008, lot 86. The Wakara style originated around Douentza, a village at the southern Bandiagara cliff. According to Hélène Leloup (1994: 100), the three vertical features below the eyes are typical scarification marks of the Kassambara, the first immigrants to the area. These marks, along with the three parallel lines which stretch from the temples to the chin (a feature considered to come from the eastern part of the cliff) and the Songhai origin of the jagged coiffure all testify to the old and complex history of the area's settlement. The two hands supporting the slightly prominent belly presumably allude to pregnancy - a hypothesis which is probably [sic] since these sculptures were used at fertility rituals (loc. cit.).Sotheby's, auctioneer, New York, US
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Sale title : African, Oceanic & Pre-Columbian Art
Sale date : 15 May 2009
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Sale Reference : Live Sale
