Bamana Headdress, Minianka Region, Mali

on a base by the Japanese wood artist Kichizô Inagaki (1876-1951), Paris

Acquired in situ in the Minianka Region by Frédérick Henri Lem in 1934 or 1935
Helena Rubinstein, Paris and New York, acquired from the above
Sotheby Parke-Bernet, New York, The Helena Rubinstein Collection, April 21, 1966, lot 70
Harry Franklin, Los Angeles, acquired at the above auction
Sotheby's New York, The Harry Franklin Family Collection of African Art, April 21, 1990, lot 22
Edwin and Cherie Silver, Los Angeles, acquired at the above auction

Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, Antelopes of Africa, 1974-1975
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, Portraits of Madame, 1976
University Art Museum, University of California, Santa Barbara, Deceptive Realities: Authenticity and Quality in African Art, January 15, 1991 - February 24, 1991
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Genesis: Ideas of Origin in African Sculpture, November 19, 2002 - April 13, 2003

Frédérick Henri Lem, Sculptures soudanaises, Paris, 1948, p. 74, pl. 28
Frédérick Henri Lem, Sudanese Sculpture, Paris, 1949, p. 74, p. 28
Dominique Zahan, Antilopes du soleil. Arts et rites agraires d'Afrique noire, Vienna, 1980, pl. 12, cat. no. IF 33
Jean-Baptiste Bacquart, The Tribal Arts of Africa, London, 1998, p. 67, fig. B
Jean-Baptiste Bacquart, L'art tribal d'Afrique noire, Paris, 1998, p. 67, fig. B
Alissa LaGamma, Genesis: Ideas of Origin in African Sculpture, New York, 2002, p. 87, fig. 41

One of the most recognizable works of art from the Bamana culture, and indeed, in all of African art, is the ci wara antelope headdress. As a largely agricultural society, the Bamana venerated the ci wara as a divine being who gifted the knowledge of farming to those in the mortal realm. While this being was not thought to represent a particular animal, most headdresses are depicted with a combination of features from antelopes, anteaters, or pangolins for use in rituals that celebrated and encouraged the physical toil of agricultural work. Although the present lot represents a female antelope carrying her fawn, vertical styles of ci wara headdresses were sculpted and utilized in male and female pairs. During ceremonies held in the fields, two dancers wore full bodied raffia capes topped with either the male or female ci wara, in a performance that "[evoked] the elemental union of fire, earth, and through the rivulets of the raffia costume, water." (LaGamma, Genesis, 2002, p. 82)

The present lot is distinguished in the corpus of ci wara sculptures for its illustrious pedigree and minimalist forms. Collected in situ in the Minianka region of modern day Mali by the French field collector Frederick H. Lem, the object was illustrated in Lem’s catalogue of finds he made during his travels in then-French West Africa in 1934-35. By presenting high quality examples of works of art in a more comprehensive ethnographic context, Lem hoped to advance the scholarly and artistic appreciation of art indigenous to that region, though his wishes for a museum in Dakar never came to fruition. This ci wara eventually entered the collection of cosmetics magnate Helena Rubenstein and was sold in the landmark auction of her African art collection at Sotheby Parke-Bernet in 1966.

LaGamma described the simple beauty of this ci wara: "This example is especially lithe and delicately attenuated. The mother’s body is supported by legs that are unusually long and slender, and the arc of her neck, represented as a curve extending from the base of the head to the lower body, is comparatively gradual. The muzzle is oriented directly downward rather than at a 45-degree angle. The horns, impressive for their length and spiral surface texture, boast sharply pointed tips that could be lethal weapons. Except for its abbreviated horns, neck, and muzzle, the fawn is almost a mirror of its mother. The artist depicts it leaning back, delicately balanced on the mother’s posterior, a posture that evokes how Bamana children, while securely carried on their mothers’ backs, are also pulled away gently by gravity" (ibid., p. 87).