Tête commémorative, Akan, Ghana

Acquis par Karl Heinz Krieg à Kumasi, Ghana
Transmis par descendance

Munich, Museum fur Volkerkunde, Afrikanische Keramik, 10 décembre 1984 - 12 mai 1985; Düsseldorf, Keramikmuseum, 16 juin - 15 septembre 1985
Aalen, Kunstverein Aalen, Kunst der Akan, 21 juin - 20 août 1995

Stössel, Afrikanische Keramik, 1984, p. 279, n° 202
Kunstverein Aalen, Kunst der Akan, 1995, couverture et p. 27, n° 2
Schaedler, Earth and Ore : 2500 years of African Art in terra-cotta and metal, 1997, p. 187, n° 340

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C'est dans les années 1970 que Karl Heinz Krieg acquit au Ghana les deux majestueuses têtes en terre cuite Akan comptant parmi les œuvres maîtresses de sa collection d'arts d'Afrique de l'Ouest : celle de style Twifo-Heman (Sotheby's, Paris, 12 décembre 2012, n° 69) et celle-ci, provenant de la région d'Adanse.

D'après la classification établie par Bernard de Grunne (Terres cuites anciennes de l'Ouest africain, 1980, p. 148-149), cette tête relèverait plus précisément du style de Fomena-Adanse, "dont l'âge d'or serait le 17^e et le 18^e siècle", caractérisé en particulier par : "une tête presque de grandeur nature, les sourcils en arc de cercle indiqués, les paupières entrouvertes clairement modelées, les lèvres traitées de manière géométrique en minces bandes plates, et les oreilles percées d'un petit trou circulaire". Au sein de ce corpus étroit, la tête de la collection Krieg, aux signes de beauté superbement détaillés, s'apparente très étroitement, par la teinte sombre de son engobe et le détail de la coiffure dominée par un chignon sommital, à celle de la collection de Nelson A. Rockefeller conservée au Metropolitan Museum of Art (inv. n° 1978.412.353, cf. LaGamma, Heroic Africans: Legendary Leaders, Iconic Sculptures, 2011, p. 89).

Décrites dès 1602 par Pieter de Marees (Description and Historical Account of the Gold Kingdom of Guinea), les terres cuites commémoratives mma constituaient, en pays Akan, des portraits honorant la mémoire d'une personnalité de haut rang et étaient exposées, soit autour de la tombe, soit à proximité d'un lieu sacré. 

In Ghana in the early 1970s Karl Heinz Krieg acquired the two majestic Akan terracotta heads that were among the masterpieces of his collection of West African art: the Twifo-Heman head (Sotheby's, Paris, 12 December 2012, No. 69) and the offered head, which is from the Adanse region.

According to the classification established by Bernard de Grunne (Terres cuites anciennes de l'Ouest africain, 1980, p. 148-149), this head can be more precisely attributed to the Fomena-Adanse style, "the golden age of which arose in the 17^th and 18^th century". The distinguishing characteristics of this style are "an almost life-size head, marked arcuate eyebrows, slightly parted, clearly-modelled eyelids, lips treated geometrically as thin flat strips, and ears pierced with a small circular hole." Within this narrow corpus, the Krieg collection head, with its beautifully detailed marks of beauty, bears great similarities — such as the dark colour of its slip and the detail of the coiffure, with its topmost chignon — to that of the Nelson A. Rockefeller Collection in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (inv. No. 1978.412.353, cf. LaGamma, Heroic Africans: Legendary Leaders, Iconic Sculptures, 2011, p. 89).

Described as early as 1602 by Pieter de Marees (Description and Historical Account of the Gold Kingdom of Guinea), commemorative Mma terracottas served, in Akan country, as portraits honouring the memory of a high-ranking personality and were displayed either around the grave, or in close proximity to a sacred place.