IMAGE DETAILS

Montagut Gallery

Baule statue
Baule people, Ivory Coast, 19th century
Wood
H 40.5 cm

Provenance: Galerie Olivier Le Corneur, Paris; Marceau Rivière collection, Paris, France; Alberto Costa Romero de Tejada, Barcelona, Spain; Javier Lentini collection, Barcelona, Spain
Literature: África. La Figura Imaginada. Fundació LaCaixa, Barcelona, 2004. nº 44, p. 9

Unique within the corpus, this masterpiece destabilizes, fascinates, and intrigues with its beauty and singularity. Its powerful serenity is magnified by its stature, refinement, gesture, and adornment. The sculpted forms, robust and vigorous due to its accentuated musculature, paradoxically suggest lightness, enhanced by its missing feet. The dignitary represented seems to be in weightlessness, in levitation, with its elevated presence remarkably imposing.

The ideal of beauty and perfection among the Baule, representing moral perfection through its traits, is embodied here. Prestige is revealed in its details. Animated by an allied energy and tranquility, its authority and dignity vibrate with admirable majesty.