Baga D'mba Headdress, Republic of Guinea

Julius Carlebach, New York, 1950s
Hope (1924-2013) and Todd Makler, Philadelphia, acquired from the above on December 11, 1958

The Baga people live along Africa's western Atlantic coast in what is today the Republic of Guinea. Oral traditions recall how the ancestors of the Baga and of peoples of related cultural heritage – Pukur, Bulunits, Landuma, and Nalu – were driven out of their homeland in the highlands of the mountainous Fouta Djallon region in the interior of Guinea. According to this tradition, the Baga were expelled by the Islamic Fulbe people because of their refusal to convert to Islam, and also because their farming lifestyle was incompatible with the destructive cattle-herding practices of the intruders. Written history and archaeology confirm the historic validity of these accounts and place the beginning of the Baga Diaspora sometime before the fifteenth century. See Lamp (1996: 49 et seq.) for further discussion.

Lamp (1996: 155) suggests that "the establishment of a new society under new political and social conditions" following their relocation necessitated a break with previous art traditions and the creation of a new, revolutionary sculptural language. D'mba, the manifestation of the quintessential woman, stood for motherhood, fertility, health, and well-being, as well as righteousness and dignity, and thus the most essential qualities of a newly established society. The D'mba headdress, first described in 1615 by Manuel Alvares as "a very black wooden female figure [... which] comes out only at the occasional mourning for a deeply important person [... with a] dress of straw, atop which [is seen] a figure" (quoted after the translation by Lamp 1996: 156) was the central image of the newly established Baga society. Lamp (op. cit.: 158) notes: "The massive headdress of D'mba is widely acknowledged as one of the outstanding works of African art. [...] D'mba represented an abstraction of an ideal of the female role in society. She was the universal mother who was to be honored because she had borne many children, and had nursed them to productive adulthood. She was the vision of woman at the zenith of power, beauty, and affective presence. She represented the Baga vision of goodness and light." 

The innovative power of Baga D'mba iconography exerted a strong fascination on Western artists of the 20th century. Several study drawings and a rare wood sculpture by Picasso from the year 1907 reveal his early fascination with this sculptural tradition, eventually resulting in his acquisition of a D'mba mask in the later 1920s (see Rubin 1984: 276-279 and 326) which William Rubin believed to have been the catalyst for the artist's creation of the passionately modeled series of sculptures after the body of his young mistress Marie-Thérèse Walter of the years 1931-1932 (see Rubin 1984: 324-328). Almost half a century after Picasso's first interest, another giant of 20th century art expressed his interest in another aspect of Baga D'mba aesthetics, this time their bold verticality, as can be seen in Giacometti's drawing of the year 1952.

The Baga D'mba from the Makler Family Collection, acquired in 1958 from Julius Carlebach in New York, was one of the first Baga D'mba headdress to arrive in America (Nelson Rockefeller acquired his Baga D'mba, today in the Metropolitan Museum of Art inv. no. "1979.206.17", in 1956, also from Julius Carlebach). Surviving only in fragmentary condition, it is of great age and represents a pure and archaic style. Its arrival in New York coincided with the emergence of the United States as leader of the international art scene. Hope Makler (1924-2013) was one of a generation of visionary individuals who introduced avant-garde art to the American public. The pioneering Makler Gallery, opened by Hope in 1960 with the supportive participation of her husband Dr. Paul Todd Makler, brought mid-20th century art to Philadelphia through relationships with New York dealers such as Klaus and Dolly Perls, Arne Glimcher, Sidney Janis, Martha Jackson and André Emmerich. The Maklers populated many Philadelphia collections, as well as their own, with the work of Alexander Calder, David Smith, Anselm Kiefer, Jean Dubuffet, Louise Nevelson and Milton Avery among others. 

As Hope stated in 1989, "[We] were in the right place at the right time [...]. We were very clearly defined in our outlook, our position, what we wanted to do, [...] the things we would be proud to offer […]" (Interview with Marina Pacini in the Oral History Collection of the Archives of American Art, November 28, 1989). Hope attended courses at the Barnes Foundation, Lower Merion, in 1956-57 and completed a master’s degree at the University of Pennsylvania in 1959. She ran the Makler Gallery with zest and sensibility until 1985. Hope's legacy includes her role as the first woman on the Executive Committee of the Art Dealers Association of America.