Exceptionnelle statue , Sénufo, Côte d'Ivoire

Acquise en 1960 à la Stolper Gallery, New York

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Cette œuvre, d'une modernité saisissante, relève d'un corpus très restreint.

En 1961, à New York, l'exposition Traditional Art from the African Nations réunissait au Museum of Primitive Art le plus exceptionel ensemble de statues déblé Sénufo. Sur le cliché pris par Charles Hut figure, à côté des œuvres emblématiques témoignant de la richesse des styles Sénufo, une rare statue dont le corps est également symbolisé par quatre longues verticales. Ici, la monumentalité de la sculpture est accentuée par le contraste entre les volumes compacts du buste et de la base, et le corps aérien symbolisé par les jambes semblant s'étirer à l'infini, refermant sur le vide, en quatre points, le champs sculptural.

Deux autres œuvres lui sont conceptuellement apparentées : la statue Janus de la collection André Malraux (Sotheby's, Paris, 4 décembre 2008, n° 86) et la statue de la collection Pierre Loeb (Paudrat, 2007 : 22-24). Tandis que chacune témoigne d'une individualité artistique remarquable, toutes attestent, par l'essence du bois dur et brun jaune, par la base cylindrique dans laquelle se fond l'extrémité des jambes et par certains détails anatomiques - comme ici la coiffe en crête sagittale -, de leur appartenance à la grande statuaire Sénufo. 

Sa signification demeure inconnue. Cependant, son caractère Janus, féminin d'un côté, masculin de l'autre, la rattache au fondement de la grande statuaire déblé, toujours sculptée par couple - dynamique essentielle de la pensée des Sénufo. Enfin tandis que la profonde patine du bois dur atteste sa grande ancienneté, les marques de brûlure témoignent probablement de son abandon lors de la propagation du culte iconoclaste du Massa, dans les années 1950.  

Exceptional Senufo figure, Ivory Coast

This strikingly modern piece is part of a very limited corpus.

In 1961 the New York exhibit Traditional Art from the African Nations brought together in the Museum of Primitive Art a most exceptional group of Senufo deble statues. In the picture taken by Charles Hut, appearing next to the emblematic works attesting to the richness of Senufo styles, is a rare statue whose body is symbolized by for long vertical lines. Here the monumental nature of the statue is accentuated by the contrast between the compact volumes of the torso and the base, and the airy body symbolized by the legs which seem to stretch up infinitely, closing the sculptural field over the negative space in four points.

Two other pieces are conceptually related to this work of art : the statue of Janus from the André Malraux collection (Sotheby's, Paris, 4 December 2008, n° 86) ; and the statue from the Pierre Loeb collection (Paudrat, 2007 : 22-24). While each of them show remarkable artistic individuality, due to the type of brownish-yellow hard wood used, due to their bases into which the extremities of the legs melt, and due to certain anatomical details (such as the sagital crest of the headdress), they can all be classed as appertaining to the large-scale Senufo statuary.  

It's meaning remains unknown. However, its Janus nature—female on one side, male on the other—links it to the fundamentals of large-scale deble statuary always representing a couple (an essential aspect of the dynamics of Senufo thought). Last of all, while the deep patina of the hard wood attests to its great age, the burn marks on it are probably a sign of its being abandoned in the course of the propagation of the iconoclast Massa culte in the 1950s.