Beschreibung:

Baule statue, Ivory Coast
Wood
H. 41 cm

Provenance :
Maine Durieu Collection, Paris, France

Celebrated, recognized and elevated to the rank of the primitive arts most appreciated by Westerners, Baoulé statuary has conquered aesthetes the world over for its symbolism, its delicate modelling and the powerful, fascinating peace with which it is animated. Among the modernists, Vlaminck was one of the first to succumb.

It is said to be the representation dictated by the soothsayer, the komyienfwé, of "a bush genie" in the form and features of a human corresponding to the classic iconographic criteria of Baule beauty. As intermediaries with natural and supernatural forces, conceived as a receptacle, a dwelling place for spirits, asye usu enabled men, and the diviner himself, to appease, honor and communicate with them.

Embodying the spirit of nature, art fulfilled a higher function designed to : "To overcome instinct and irrationality, to go beyond the disorder of the world and inscribe a balance in clear plans and precise contours, to dominate impulsiveness, to immobilize the volatile spirit, to set for it the constraint of a measure, of a musicality [...] To impose on the mind a sense of balance, a sense of equilibrium. [...] To impose on an indocile and turbulent being an architectonic, a density, harmonious lines, gently curved" (Boyer, Baulé, 2008, pp. 33-34).

According to Susan Vogel the elaborate hairstyles, in this case intricately striated, extending backwards into a long, beautiful braided plait, as well as the refined scarifications animating the bust and belly, and the back, were "signs of the civilized person" expressing the fact that "the once savage and destructive energies will now work for the good of their human host" (Du visible à l'invisible, p. 237). As a metaphor for his clairvoyance and dialogue with the invisible, his coffee-bean eyes, finely pleated, seem to be half-open as he looks at the visible world, symbolizing the internalized invisible. A sublimation of the wild forces of nature, she asserts herself in the harmony of her face with its idealized features.

The more beautiful the statue, the more benevolent the spirit. Its forms complement each other, reflecting each other in perfect harmony. The angular lines of the small, pointed breasts, the bent knees and elbows, contrasting skilfully with the soft oval of the face and the exacerbated roundness of the belly, on which her hands are carefully placed, suggesting fertility, contribute to the rhythm of the composition. Her rounded curves correspond to Baule beauty criteria, and her waist, calves and thighs are clearly marked and accentuated.

The face's powerful expressiveness is enhanced by the meticulous treatment of its features, whose edges and contours are carefully emphasized. The wide, rectangular mouth with its thick, flattened lips gives it a serious, austere air. The small, slender triangular nose, with flared nostrils - denoting a concern for naturalism - is linked to the slender arch of the eyebrows, sculpted in an arc of a circle in relief. Arcades and rings are linked, framing the eyes and intensifying their striking "introspective reflection" (Vogel, Baulé: African Art, Wester Eyes, 1997, p. 28), giving them a profoundly meditative allure.