Bamana Female Figure, Mali

Henri Kamer (1927-1992), Cannes / New York, acquired by 1970

Possibly Vittorio Mangiò, Monza

European Private Collection

Sotheby’s, London, Tribal Art, June 24, 1985, lot 14

Barbara and Brian Wolfowitz, acquired at the above auction

Leuzinger, E., Die Kunst von Schwarz-Afrika, Zurich, 1970, p. 41, n° B5

Leuzinger, E., Kunst uit Afrika: Rond de Niger-de machtige rivier, The Hague, 1971, p. 45, n° B5

Wichmann, S., Welt Kulturen und Moderne Kunst: Die Begegnung der Europaischen Kunst und Musik im 19. Und 20. Jahrhundert mit Asien, Afrika, Oceanien, Afro- und Indo-Amerika, Munich, 1972, p. 459, n° 1780

Van Geertruyen, G., "Le style Nimba" in Arts d'Afrique Noire, n° 31, 1979, p. 32, fig. 13

Kerchache, J., Paudrar, J.-L. and Stephan, L., L'Art africain, Paris, Citadelles & Mazenod, 1988, p. 369, n° 288

Kerchache, J., Paudrar, J.-L. and Stephan, L., Art of Africa, New York, Harry N. Abrams, 1993, p. 369, n° 288

Bacquart, J.-B., The Tribal Arts of Africa, Paris, 1998, p. 65, n° 9

Zurich, Kunsthaus, Die Kunst von Schwarz-Afrika, October 31, 1970 - January 17, 1971

The Hague, Gemeentemuseum, Kunst uit Afrika-Rond de Niger de machtige rivier, July 3 - September 5, 1971

Munich, Haus der Kunst, Welt Kulturen und Moderne Kunst, June 16 - September 30, 1972

Bamana artists represented their canons of female beauty through a highly refined and inventive aesthetic tradition, which we see today as figural abstraction. At Sotheby’s London in 1985, Barbara et Brian Wolfowitz acquired this elegant “cubistic” female statue, which had been shown and published on the occasion of the landmark exhibition and book Die Kunst von Schwarz-Afrika in Zurich in 1970. While in the Wolfowitz collection, it was included in the Mazenod Editions book L’Art Africain by Jacques Kerchache, Jean-Louis Paudrat and Lucien Stéphan, and other notable publications.

While the treatment of the body of this figure conforms to the proportions and forms seen in other celebrated Bamana figures, the present example from the Wolfowitz collection is particularly geometric in conception. A distinctive, neatly-formed head, which in profile reads as a semicircular arch and a flat chin parallel to the ground, projects horizontally from the neck, longer than it is tall. The form recalls those seen in some styles of Bamana Ci Wara antelope headdresses (see for example LaGamma 2002: 88, n° 42). The ears echo the curve of the top of the head, formed by smaller arches in horizontal relief on either side of the head. The neck is formed of a straight upright cylinder, which continues down in a straight line through the shoulders and forms the body, which sits upon a pelvis and legs which break from this cylinder in their own faceted shape. The large, conical breasts project dramatically from the faceted mass making up the shoulders and arms. The legs are lightly bent, in a spring-loaded dancer’s stance, ready to jump. Rhythmic patterns adorn the surface of the figure, evoking the scarification decorating the bodies of young Bamana women.

Nyeleni female figures played an important role in the initiation ceremonies of the Jo, a religious society that helped to provide social cohesion and order in many southern Bamana communities. Once every seven years, young Bamana initiates who have been studying the rites and ideas of the Jo and preparing for their ceremonial "re-birth" are led to a secluded bush where a symbolic "killing of the Jo" takes place. This event marks the attainment of adulthood for the initiates - known as Jodenw - after which they travel to various villages demonstrating their knowledge of the Jo society through song and dance in exchange for gifts. On their travels, the Jodenw carry stylized Nyeleni figures, which "evoke the young girl in her ideal state with the highest degree of physical attraction" (Ezra, Figure Sculpture of the Bamana of Mali, 1983, pp. 11 - 12). As such, Nyeleni figures represent the canons of Bamana female beauty.