Dogon - Mali (Ohne Mindestpreis)

A Dogon horse rider, Mali. Heavy wood, encrusted, high aged patina, signs of use. Certificate of origin and provenance.

"Dogon art presents a broad range of object types and styles. Among the human figures alone, some are well over life-size, while others are barely a few inches in height. Their repertoire of gestures is also varied, and includes figures standing, kneeling, sitting, or riding, raising one or both arms in a variety of poses, and holding or wearing articles related to their gender, age, occupation, or social status. In style they vary from full-volumed, sensitively modeled sculptures that are highly descriptive in their details to works that are reduced to abstract geometric shapes stripped of all but the barest references to human anatomy. The surfaces of Dogon sculptures also suggest that they are treated in a variety of ways and may therefore have a range of meanings. While some works are smooth, oiled, and polished, others are thickly coated with sacrificial materials, sometimes to the point of obscuring their sculptural form. The range of styles and imagery seen in Dogon sculpture suggests that they embody richer and more varied references than the simple identification as images of Nommo would encompass. Even if the ultimate meaning of Dogon art depends upon the concept of Nommo, as Griaule and Dieterlen and their followers propose, this meaning an only be enriched by adding to it the many other levels of meaning that arise from the particular settings in which the objects are located.

The Dogon place wood figures depicting men and women on many different kinds of altars, most of which are dedicated to ancestors, either real or mythical. Although figurative sculptures, called dege, are perhaps the most interesting types of Dogon art, varied in form and rich in imagery, they are also among the least well documented. Few altars have been described in detail or illustrated; those that have been described do not suggest any consistent pattern linking a particular style of figure or a specific posture or gesture with any one kind of altar. There is also little information with which to identify the persons represented by the figures."

Reference: Hélèn Leloup, Dogon Statuary, 1995; plate 74 - 97, page 159.