African Arts Gallery

Colors and chiefdoms in African art.
This ancient ancestor statuette, characterized by rounded, packed volumes, was first carved in wood and then covered with a canvas of rabane encrusted with imported multicolored beads, predominantly red. She sports a crested hairstyle ending in the neck. The figure that could represent a royal bride squeezes against her bust the attributes of royalty, royal pipes that were brass and wood, bronze and pearls for the most refined. As part of the agrarian rites, however, the Bamileke woman, in charge of the work of the land, also smoked the pipe at the site of the clearing. Alterations of one of the feet, missing beads.
The Bamiléké , a subgroup of a larger people also made up of Bamoun and Tikar, are famous for their African art sculptures ...

French African art collection.
Mixed with Nalu and Landuman , Baga live along the coast of Guinea-Bissau in flooded swamp regions six months a year. They believe in a creative god called Nagu, Naku , which they do not represent, and which is accompanied by a male spirit whose name is Somtup , represented by a large cage covered with raffia whose top is a bird's head. Apart from the famous Nimba mask, they created a powerful mask, a hybrid of snake, gazelle, chameleon and crocodile, in order to communicate with the spirits of the forest, and which they wore obliquely on the head. A red, orange and yellow polychromy, contrasting with the dark patina, remains noticeable. Kaolin brush residue. Surface matte, dry and flaked. This piece comes from an African art collector who wishes to ...