Keeper of "mbulu" relics. Kota-Mindumu, Gabon. With metal base.
56.5 cm high (without base).
The guardian figures guard the relics of relevant ancestors, and as long as their descendants comply with the obligation to "keep them alive" through offerings, they ensure happiness and the well-being of the family lineage. In the same way, they take part in initiation dances, intercede for the fertility of the group, good hunting, business..., and intervene in personal disputes.
These surprising sculptures were reduced to the essentials to suggest the human figure (a rhombus, a spiral and a semicircle), the "primitive artifacts" that struck Picasso and Gris in the Trocadero museum. The tendency towards abstraction and schematic lines of these figures greatly influenced the break with the classical canon carried out by the avant-garde.
Juan Gris, fascinated by the use of three dimensions in a plane, made a copy of a Kota guardian cut out of cardboard, now disappeared, to later write: "How can we not admit an art that proceeding in this way manages to individualize what is general and each time in a different way? It is the opposite of Greek art...".
DECORATIVE ARTS
Starting price
1.700 €
HAMMER PRICE
1.900 €
duran-app.lot.title_phone_bid
Phone 1:
Phone 2:
Comments:Confirm your maximum bid
At the time of auction we will contact you by phone:
Confirm your maximum bid
Loading…
Conecting with the server
Are you sure you want to buy the lot?
Durán Sala de Arte 2024
Confirm your maximum bid
Bizum