African Arts Gallery

Ex. French collection of African art .
Baulé figurative sculpture from Ivory Coast, depicting a subject riding a mount with contrasting proportions. Two-tone patina, kaolin highlights. Minor abrasions and cracks.
Two types of statues are produced by the Baoulé, Baulé, in the ritual context: The Waka-Sona statues, "wooden being" in Baoulé, evoke an assié oussou, being of the earth. They are part of a type of statues intended to be used as a medium tool by the komien diviners, the latter being selected by the asye usu spirits in order to communicate revelations from the afterlife. The second type of statues are the "spouses" of the afterlife, masculine, the Blolo bian or feminine, the blolo bia, which are related to a quest for plenitude by seeking homage to one's idealized sexual opposite. About sixty ethnic groups populate Côte d'Ivoire, including the Baoulé, in the center, Akans from Ghana, people of the savannah, practicing hunting and agriculture just like the Gouro from whom they borrowed ritual cults and sculpted masks.