Statue, Bamana, Mali

Collection Frederick .H. Lem, France, collecté dans le Ganadougou (région de Sikasso), ca. 1934
Collection Helena Rubinstein, Paris/New York, acquis avant 1949
Parke-Bernet Galleries, New York, 21 avril 1966, The  Helena Rubinstein Collection, n°58
Pace Primitive, New York, 1996
Collection privée

Lem, Sculptures Soudanaises, 1949, p. 80, n°34

Slesin, Over the Top, Helena Rubinstein extraordinary style, Beauty, Art, Fashion, Design", 2003, p. 109, visible sur la photographie de son appartement parisien, quai de Béthune. 

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Initiée à l'art africain par le sculpteur Jacob Epstein dès le début des années 1910, Helena Rubinstein avait développé pour cet art un "goût français" que Robert Goldwater (fondateur du Museum of Primitive Art, New York) avait qualifié de "Primitivisme intellectuel", fondé sur l'équilibre des formes géométriques et les patines sombres et lisses (Le Fur in Slesin, 2003, p. 106). Dès 1912, son appartement parisien devint le cadre d'une avant-garde où dialoguaient sculptures d'Afrique et œuvres de Picasso, Lipchitz et Brancusi. Aux œuvres majeures acquises pendant l’entre-deux-guerres auprès de Charles Ratton (Reine Bangwa, Cameroun) ou lors de grandes ventes aux enchères parisiennes (Georges de Miré, 1931) s’ajouta avant 1949 l'exceptionnel ensemble de sculptures soudanaises collectées par Frederick H. Lem entre 1934 et 1935. Entré dans la collection d'Helena Rubinstein par l'entremise du docteur et écrivain Paul Chadourne, ce groupe compte notamment la statue Sénoufo du "maître de Sikasso" (Lem, 1949, n° 45), le cimier Bamana aujourd’hui dans la collection Daniel et Marion Malcom (New Jersey) et la statue que nous présentons, collectée par Lem dans le Ganadougou (Sud du Mali, région de Sikasso). 

Illustrant l'esthétique moderniste chère à Helena Rubinstein, la remarquable dynamique des formes renvoie de manière saisissante au vocabulaire qui fonda le cubisme. La force de la construction géométrique – mettant en valeur l'image idéale de la femme Bamana "à son plus haut degré d'attraction physique" (Ezra, 1986, p. 17) est accentuée par les motifs couvrant le corps – tels qu'ils ornaient autrefois le corps des adolescentes, et par la patine sombre, évoquant selon Kate Ezra (idem) le corps des jeunes filles Bamana se préparant pour les danses. Voir Colleyn (2002, p. 146, n° 130) pour une statue comparable et Sweeney (1935, n° 4) pour une autre exposée au MoMA en 1935, à l'époque dans la collection d'André Level. 

Bamana figure, Mali

Introduced to African art by sculptor Jacob Epstein in the early 1910s, Helena Rubinstein developed a "French taste" for this art, which Robert Goldwater (founder of the Museum of Primitive Art, New York) described as "Intellectual Primitivism", "based on the balance between the geometric shapes and the smooth dark patinas" (Le Fur in Slesin, 2003, p. 106). By 1912, her Paris apartment became a manifesto for an Avant Garde, which brought African sculptures face to face with art by Picasso, Lipchitz and Brancusi. In addition to the major pieces acquired from Charles Ratton between the two wars (Bangwa Queen, Cameroon) or at leading Parisian auctions (Georges de Miré, 1931) she had also purchased - prior to 1949 - the exceptional set of Sudanese sculptures collected by Frederick H. Lem between 1934 and 1935. Introduced into the Helena Rubinstein Collection via doctor and author Paul Chadourne, this group includes the Senufo statue by the "Sikasso Master" (Lem, 1949, No. 45), the Bamana headdress now in the Daniel and Marion Malcom Collection (New Jersey), and this statue, collected by Lem in Ganadougou (southern Mali, Sikasso region). A specimen of the modernist aesthetic so dear to Helena Rubinstein, the figure's remarkable formal impetus serves as a striking reference to the founding vocabulary of Cubism.

The force of the geometrical construct - showcasing the ideal image of Bamana women "at their highest degree of physical attraction"  (Ezra, 1986, p. 17) - is accentuated by the patterns that run across the entire body, as they once did on the bodies of young teenage girls, and by the dark patina, which, according to Kate Ezra, (idem) evokes the bodies of young Bamana girls preparing for dances. See Colleyn (2002, p. 146, No. 130) for a statue with similar traits and Sweeney (1935, No. 4) for another one, on display at the MoMA in 1935 and part of André Level's collection at the time.