Statue, Boa, République Démocratique du Congo

Collection Jeanne-Marie Walschot, Bruxelles
Galerie Ambre, Bruxelles
Collection Udo et Wally Horstmann, Zug, acquis en 1980
Collection privée

New York, The Center for African Art, Close Up: Lessons in the Art of Seeing African sculpture from an American Collection and the Horstmann Collection, 12 septembre 1990-11 mars 1991
Berlin, Kunstforum, 5000 jahre, Afrika, Ägyptien, Afrika, 18 septembre-30 novembre 2008

Arts d'Afrique Noire, n° 36, 1980, couverture
Vogel et Thompson, Close Up: Lessons in the Art of Seeing African sculpture from an American Collection and the Horstmann Collection, 1990, p. 116, n° 37
Junge et Wildung, 5000 jahre, Afrika, Ägyptien, Afrika, 2008, p. 72
Bassani et alii, Formes et Figures. L'Art Africain dans la collection Horstmann, 2002, p. 192, n° 80

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Puisant dans l'invention formelle propre aux traditions sculpturales du Haut-Congo, cette statue relève d'un corpus parmi les plus rares et les plus audacieux. Sur ses six sculptures répertoriées (dont une dans les collections du Musée Royal de l'Afrique Centrale à Tervuren et une autre au MAS d'Anvers), deux ont fait l'objet de plusieurs expositions et publications : l'exemplaire de Paul Tishman (Vogel, For Spirits and Kings: African Art from the Tishman Collection, 1981, p. 235-236) et cette statue demeurée pendant près de trente ans dans la collection Udo et Wally Horstmann, qui fut notamment choisie pour illustrer, en 1980, la couverture de la revue Arts d'Afrique Noire. 

Si l'on sait que la statue de Camille d'Heygere (cf. Bernard de Grunne, Biennale des Antiquaires, 2014) a été collectée entre 1893 et 1898, et que deux d'entre elles - dont celle de la collection Tishman - ont été acquises avant 1920 dans la région du fleuve Aruwimi, aucune n'a été documentée au moment de sa collecte. Herman Burssens (in Vogel, idem) et Marc Felix (100 People of Zaire and their Sculpture, The Handbook, 1987, p. 16) fondent leur attribution au peuple Boa tant sur un rapprochement formel avec leurs masques, que sur la prévalence artistique des Boa dans cette vaste région prise en étau entre les aires Mangbetu (à l'Est) et Zande (au Nord et à l'Ouest). 

Au détail des oreilles projetées latéralement et percées - caractéristique des masques Boa -, s'ajoutent la même force expressionniste et une audace égale dans la conception plastique. La statue Horstmann constitue à cet égard la quintessence du style : chaque volume corporel y est appréhendé comme une forme autonome, différemment interprétée selon son expression plastique. Aux jambes puissamment signifiées par une succession de masses sphériques répond la souplesse des bras exprimée dans l'ampleur du mouvement et dans la découpe longitudinale des plans. Jouant sur le rapport constant entre la continuité des lignes et les ruptures des plans, les volumes épannelés sont exacerbés par les touches facettées de la surface, contribuant à l'intensité du geste sculptural.        

Selon Vogel et Thompson (Close Up: Lessons in the Art of Seeing African sculpture from an American Collection and the Horstmann Collection, 1990, p. 184), cette sculpture serait vraisemblablement "l'effigie commémorative d'un individu prestigieux". Tandis que son tatouage frontal, rappelant celui "autrefois arboré par les Ngelima voisins" (idem), de même que sa patine, attestent sa grande ancienneté, la main d'un grand maître sculpteur se révèle dans cette prodigieuse interprétation du style identifié comme Boa. 

Drawing from the formal invention specific to the sculptural traditions of the Upper Congo, this statue is part of one of the rarest and most daring corpuses. Of the six recorded sculptures (one of which is kept in the collections of the Royal Museum for Central Africa in Tervuren and another at the MAS in Antwerp), two have been the subject of several exhibitions and publications: the figur from the collection of Paul Tishman (Vogel, For Spirits and Kings: African Art from the Tishman Collection, 1981, p. 235-236) and this figure, which for nearly 30 years was part of the collection of Udo and Wally Horstmann, and which was notably selected to illustrate the cover of the magazine Arts d'Afrique Noire in 1980. 

Although its is known that Camille d'Heygere's sculpture (cf. Bernard de Grunne, Biennale des Antiquaires, 2014) was collected between 1893 and 1898, and that two of them - including the Tishman figure - were acquired before 1920 in the Aruwimi river region, none of them were documented at the time of collection. Herman Burssens (in Vogel, ibid) and Marc Felix (100 People of Zaire and their Sculpture, The Handbook, 1987, p. 16) base their attribution to the Boa people both on a formal comparison with Boa masks, and on the artistic prevalence of the Boa in this vast region caught between the Mangbetu (to the east) and the Zande (to the north and west) regions. 

The detailing of the pierced, laterally-projecting ears - typical of Boa masks - is compounded by a similar expressionistic force and boldness in its artistic design. The Horstmann figure is, in this respect, the epitome of the style: each corporeal volume is understood as an autonomous form, differently interpreted according to its aesthetic expression. The legs, powerfully rendered through a succession of spherical masses, correlate with the pliancy of the arms, expressed in the range of their motion and in the longitudinal carving of each plane.  Playing off the relationship between the continuity of the outlines and the ruptured planes, the whittled volumes are exacerbated by the faceted surface, adding to the intensity of the sculpture.

According to Vogel and Thompson (Close Up: Lessons in the Art of Seeing African Sculpture from an American Collection and the Horstmann Collection, 1990, p. 184), this sculpture is likely to be "the commemorative effigy of a prestigious individual". The figure’s forehead tattoo, resembling that "once sported by the neighbouring Ngelima"  (ibid), as well as its patina, attest to its great age. The hand of a great master sculptor is revealed in this extraordinary interpretation of the style identified as Boa.