Lobi statue, Burkina Faso Wood, metal Dimensions:... Lot 116

Lobi statue, Burkina Faso Wood, metal Dimensions: 92 x 11 x 10.5 cm Provenance: Christian Debenest Collection, Abidjan / France Christian Debenest Collection, Abidjan / France Among the vast Lobi corpus, the "great statuary" predominates in terms of its symbolic importance, expressing the highest degree of genius of this ethnic group's sculptors. These large statues embody the effigies of ancestors, known as thilkotina, which only master sculptors were allowed to create. master sculptors were authorized to create. Attached to lineages, initiation rites and social life, these large statues personify the power of village-founding ancestors or the great healers of yore. Their dynamic posture, rhythmic movements, firm curves and fluid muscular masses give them a remarkable poise. The stretched body with its fluid volumes, the slender, long legs, flexed and tapered at the ankles, accentuate the impression of weightlessness, the figure seeming to rise, to levitate, to exist on the tips of feet that are not signified but guessed at. The back is arched, the torso proudly domed, the massive neck straight, set with a rigid metal collar. Oval face, topped with a summit crest. The beady eyes, with their clearly defined eyelids, give it a lively, astonished expression. The missing lower right part of the face gives it a very particular and intriguing strangeness.