A fine and rare Goma male figure

standing on wedge-shaped feet, the hips tapering to the angular torso with dramatically slanted shoulders and arms held to the back beneath the neck and hips encircled by fiber, the highly stylized triangular-shaped head, with pointed chin, straight mouth and upturned nose framed by incised demilune eyes, the face puncuated by brass tacks, and wearing a transerve crested coiffure, an old label on the underside reading 'Kunstza....er Amsterdam no. 785. ...'; varied deep brown to black patina.

Carel van Lier, Amsterdam, number 785, before 1927

Leendert van Lier, Blaricum-The Netherlands

Christie's Amsterdam, April 15, 1997, lot 49

Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, Tentoonstelling van oude negerplastik: collectie van Kunstzaal Van Lier,  January 8 - 31, 1927

Corbey 2000: 42-43

Van Lier 2003:  cover

Carel van Lier (1897-1945) was a fine arts dealer and a ground-breaker as the first person to present African art as art in a significant and aesthetic way in the Netherlands beginning around 1920. His gallery was called Kunstzaal Van Lier. He exhibited African art from his gallery in January 1927 at the Stedlijk Museum in Amsterdam--a major museum for modern art, where it was well-received (Corbey 2000: 41; Van Lier 2003). After Carel van Lier's death, another dealer, Leendert van Lier acquired the gallery at Rokin 126 in the late 1940's (Van Lier 2003: 112 and 130). See Van Lier (2003) for more detailed discussion and biography of Carel van Lier. 

This Goma figure is pictured resting next to Carel van Lier in a photograph believed to have been taken during the 1927 exhibition of African art at the Stedelijk Museum (see below). 

Goma figurative sculptures are very rare.  Related to the Bembe and Boyo groups, the Goma reside in small villages along the western shore of Lake Tanganyika (Biebuyck 1972: 17). This type of figure most likely served an ancestral cult, and is related to another that is part of a male and female pair (see Felix 1987: 32 and 33, figure 8).