About the lot N° 61
Title : COIFFE BAGA, D'MBA/YAMBA BAGA HEADDRESS , D'MBA/YAMBA
Provenance : J.J. Klejman, New York
Muriel Kallis Newman, Chicago, acquise auprès de ce dernier au cours des
années 1960
Offerte par Muriel Kallis Newman à l'Art Institute of Chicago en 2007
(inv.2007.580)Literature : William S. Lieberman, avec une introduction de Douglas Newton, An
American Choice: The Muriel Kallis Newman Collection, 1981, New York,
p.146
David Anfam, Lisa Mintz Messinger, Gary Tinterow. Abstract Expressionism
and Other Modern Works: The Muriel Kallis Steinberg Newman Collection in
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 2007, p.7, fig.5Notes : Among the Baga, D'mba is neither a deity nor a goddess,rather she
represents an idea of the ideal. (Lamp, 1996, p.158)
There are many D'mba variants and all of them have consistent style
criteria. At the same time. they also have differences linked to period
of conception, condition of preservation and dates of collection: the
first D'mba figures entered Europe around 1900, the last ones in the
50's; most of them were brought by antique dealers such as Kamer, Nicaud
or Emil Storrer. Although all the D'mba figures are made for the same
ritual, they often have notable differences in patina. The wood used for
the carving is relatively dense so the object does not weigh too much.
Figures are not uniformly weathered, especially when they haven't
suffered from common practices of the first collectors who would use
heavy coats of wax and a polishing brush to make a shiny and uniform
surface to please amateur's taste for a lacquered finish, which was
fashionable in the 1930's.
On the other hand, a certain amount of smoothing and polishing also took
place under the auspices of the Baga ritual preparation of the
sculpture. None had the same grain and thus did not give the same patina
after the polishing, which was the last step before the dyeing. Once
finished, the D'mba figure received libations and offerings in order to
turn this profane object into a religious or sacred one. To reach this
goal, figures were covered by several palm oil unctions, which would
produce dark, oily oozing marks, whitish palm wine, millet beer that
would leave some granular residue, and blood of sacrificed animals. It
is thus logical to distinguish patina created intentionally by its maker
from patina that stems from time and use: by handling, libation and
preservation.
In the beginning, woods had a clear color that was then partly altered
by coating the surface with dark materials either some juice made of
plants extractions or dark ground or charcoal. This coloration was not
applied uniformly on the carving. Most of the time the lower part of the
figure remained clear because it was hidden by the adornment in textile
and raffia; this part was not visible by spectators. The person who wore
the mask would have been entirely defiled as his hands would have
touched the object extensively during his dance. That is the reason why
D'mba figures often have an ombre effect. Like many African
objects,functionality of the object is a fundamental element that
determines its essence. Thus the holes between the breasts on the bust
that enabled the dancer to see through the mask and to move properly,
indeed, even if he was surrounded by assistants he could see, and the
holes in the four feet that permitted the stable fixation of the rings
to hold the array - these are fundamental elements that need to be
considered to identify the nature of a D'mba figure. In addition to
these functional holes, another one located above the filtrum was used
to hang a small bell-shaped pendant. These three elements along with
stylistic criteria prove that the object had a precise ritual use.
But inside this framework, a lot of variants contribute to create
singular sculptures bearing the marks of their creator, their sculptor
or their workshop: it is quite sure that geometric or curvilinear
tendencies must correspond to specific areas or to local trends that
also exited in traditional African cultures. In the same way, some
practices were frequent, like the over-decoration with tapestry nails or
with metallic plates, even if those practices were not constant. The
study of a known selection of the D'mba figures published in books
highlight this important diversity: for instance, the D'mba figure of
the Barbier-Mueller Museum (Schmalenbach, 1988, p.98, n36) has a light
taint and a lot of nails; Pablo Picasso's figure (Rubin, 1984, p.327)
has oily strips and no nails; a D'mba figure from George Salles past
collection is dark and shiny with nails and decorated brass plates
(Fagg, 1965 n4). These last three figures are old and original works of
art, and collected over several different periods. While one could
analyze and compare a lot of other examples of this type in public
auctions of last years, two other noteworthy sculptures are the D'mba
from the Vérité collection (ERG, Paris June 2006, n159), or more
recently, magnificent D'mba from Kahane collection (Christies, Paris,
December 2010, n3).
The Newman baga shoulder mask, D'mba-Yamba
The Baga Nimba (D'mba) is among some of the largest figurative headdress
carved from a single piece of wood, and had a magnetic appeal whose
voluptuous profile inspired the imagination of Europeans at first
knowledge. The great scholar Douglas Fraser later proclaimed: There is
no more spectacular object seen in Africa that the great Nimba masks
(Fraser 1962: 93).
The Baga people live in northwestern Guinea along the Atlantic coastal
areas, and among them are the subgroups Sitemu, Pukur and Buluits. The
Baga population is relatively small with a general lack of
socio-political centralization among them, which is possibly
attributable to their migrant past. However, the Baga are organized
through their pervasive and powerful framework of ritual. It was this
framework which most likely galvanized their cultural identity, defining
it antithetically from the Islamic Fulbe, from whom they fled. Through
this framework, they create unity among the group and channel the
magnificence and grandeur of their artistic production, generally
considered some of the most iconic and majestic works of African
sculpture (see Lamp 1996: 25 and 49 et seq.).
A comparative study based on stylistic characteristics, linguistic
similarities and some archaeological evidence, suggest that the Baga
have a Manding heritage and are related to Upper Niger cultures,
especially the Malinke and by extension, the Bamana. According to Hair,
while a migration and origin of the Baga from the interior regions is
almost certain, they have clearly occupied their current domain for the
last 500 years (in Lamp 1996: 55).
The expressive visual language of the Baga is focused on four themes:
omnipotent power and creating order through fear (the rule of the spirit
a-Mantsho-o-Pon), benevolent guidance (a-Bol), control over natural
forces (Banda) and ideal behavior (D'mba). The fourth theme is central
in a discussion of Newman Baga D'mba or Nimba as they have historically
been called. However, as Frederick Lamp clarifies, in his comprehensive
and important study of Baga works of art, Nimba is a Susu word
(neighbors of the Baga) meaning great spirit. The Susu were often
interpreters for Europeans, and this moniker for the great headdresses
was adopted. However, the Baga name is D'mba, Yamban is the Pukur name
-and the Susu do not have a related dance or works of art to the name
Nimba (Lamp, p.28).
A D'mba sculpture was described as early as 1615 by Manuel Alvarez, a
Portuguese explorer. He details briefly, but specifically, the
appearance of a black female figure with a straw dress that appears on
important occasions. The masquerade was later documented visually and in
writing for the first time in 1886 by Coffinières de Nordeck with a
drawing by Pranishnikoff.
The D'mba appears to mark important occasions dealing with personal
and/or communal growth marriages, births, wakes, agrarian rites and
hospitality ceremonies. The ceremonies may last for hours or even days.
Worn by a single dancer of great strength and technical skill, the
shoulder mask has a hollowed dome under the chest to rest on the
dancer's head, two eyeholes are between the breasts. The sides are
arched to rest on the shoulders of the dancer. The legs are pierced at
the bottom for the attachment of the rattan ring which served as a type
of girdle to keep the mask in place. A raffia skirt was draped just
under the bust. Among the Baga, D'mba is neither a deity nor a goddess,
rather she represents an idea of the ideal. She is the embodiment of the
ideal hope for the best possible outcome in any situation and an ideal
to strive for in one's personal behavior and comportment. It is also a
specifically Baga concept, conceived upon reaching the coast and
establishing a society divorced from Fouta Djallon and the Fulbe. In
this context, it is a genesis story with D'mba symbolic for new
beginnings, positive changes and new aspirations. She represents a woman
at the apogee of her power fertile, intelligent and pure of heart. With
full, sloping breasts she is a mother who has selflessly nursed her
children. Her straight neck and the carriage of her head suggest
confidence and a knowing that all things are possible (op cit. 158). Her
overall form a symphony of carefully positioned and layered crescent
shapes is symbolic. The crescent is a form universally linked to the
moon, tidal patterns and feminine power.
The Newman Baga 'Nimba', the Art Institute of Chicago and 20th Century
Art
At the heart of Muriel Kallis Steinberg Newman's stunning collection of
Abstract Expressionist paintings - Jackson Pollack, Willem de Kooning,
Mark Rothko, Franz Kline - which now rests at the Metropolitan Museum of
Art in New York, stood her Baga 'Nimba'. She studied art at the Art
Institute of Chicago, and as Douglas Newton rightly pointed out (op.
cit. p.136), with an artist's instinct, she based her decisions upon how
the power of the work influenced her. For over a century, beginning with
the Art Institute in 1889, Chicago has held important collections from
the arts of Africa, Oceania and the Americas. By 1957 both the Field
Museum and the AIC founded special departments dedicated to these fields
- one of the very first AIC acquisitions of African art was a Baga
Nimba, which remains prominently on view in their galleries (inv. no.
157.160) (idem.; see Bickford and Townsend, 'The Art Institute of
Chicago: New Galleries for African Art and Art of the Americas' in
Tribal Arts, Winter 2010: 60-67). By 1960, the AIC appointed Allen
Wardwell as curator, who in a very short time prepared the now historic
Primitive Art from Chicago Collections, in which the sculptures were
displayed in a fine arts context.
Muriel Newman is unique in her strong vision. As we have seen with the
collection of Celeste and Armand Bartos, the 1950's and early 60's,
however, presented an enlightened moment in the United States for
collecting paintings and African art. Both of these collections orbit
around one of the most important and influential art dealers of the 20th
century - Pierre Matisse. There, as early as the 1930's in New York, and
later in the Fuller Building on 57th Street, Matisse, with a sensibility
inherited from his father, consistently intermingled important paintings
with important 'primitive' art. It is from his collection that another
famous Baga sculpture hailed (see Sotheby's New York, May 2008, lot 58).
Newman also acquired works of art from him, and a so-called 'tribal'
sculpture, at the same time she acquired Giacometti, Composition with 7
figures and 1 head (The Glade), from him as early as the 1950's when she
was married to Jay Steinberg (Pierre Matisse archives, Morgan Library,
121.23).
The inclusion of Alberto Giacometti's work into the Steinberg-Newman
collection is not surprising and offers an interesting segue into the
artist's interest and exposure to significant African and Oceanic works
of art. He was encircled by friends involved in so-called primitive art,
such as Josef Mueller, Michel Leiris and Andre Breton. Sketches from
1929 based on publications in Cahiers d'arts further demonstrate his
decided interest (Wiesinger L'Atelier d'Alberto Giacometti, Centre
Pompidou, Paris, 2007:242, figs 381 and 382). More interesting, as it
relates to the Newman Baga is Giacometti's continued interest and clear
inspiration from African art in his 1956 sketch of what appears to be a
Bamana figure's profile next to a very clear sketch of a Baga Nimba.
He also had examples of African art in his personal collection,
including a Kota figure (see Christie's Kahane Collection, lot 3,
December 2010) - one of the most recognizable figures within African
art, and collected by another Chicago luminary - Florene May Schoenborn
and also on offer from the AIC (see lots 69 and 70).
The legend is that Giacometti acquired a Kota figure from the sculptor
Serge Brignoni in the years 1926 to 1930, perhaps. Later, Brignoni
recounted to William Rubin that he believed that this Kota figure was
the inspiration for the female half of he Couple (see ibid: 86, fig 81
for an image of he Couple in stone, 1927). Combining the ovoid shape of
Kota statuary with a plaquelike, rectangular plane to create the body of
the figure is a very precise reference to this as opposed to other
African works, like the Dan spoon forms, that also inspired him in the
mid-1920's (Krauss in Rubin, Vol. 2, 1984: 528, fig. 13).
More apropos to the Newman Baga, as eloquently and famously detailed by
William Rubin and more recently Michael FitzGerald and Elizabeth Cowling
, is Picasso's relationship to African art, and, in particular the Baga
Nimba form which charged an explosive period of his work from the late
1920's to the early 1930's. (Rubin 1984: 240-341; Acquavella (ed.),
2008). 'More important than any visual borrowings was Picasso's sense of
tribal objects as charged with intense emotion, with a magical force
capable of deeply affecting us. This went hand-in-hand with his
understanding of the reductive conceptual principles that underlie
African representation' (Rubin, p. cit. 268).
Picasso's representations of his mistress, Marie-Thérèse Walter, during
this period show the direct correspondence as the imagery relates to the
enormous and majestic masks created by Baga artists of Guinea and
referred to (historically, but erroneously) as 'Nimba' masks. Picasso
saw a Baga Nimba sculpture as early as 1907 during his visits to the
Trocadro (idem., 276). Sometime in the late 1920's, Picasso himself
acquired a beautiful Baga headdress, closely related in style to the
Newman Baga. It is during this time as well that Picasso began his
relationship with Walter. It seems apropos for these two 'women' to
enter his life simultaneously, as Marie-Thérèse was the incarnation of
sensuality and, thereby, ideas of fecundity and fertility. Likewise, the
Baga headdress has cultural associations with fertility - neither the
meaning nor associated form was lost on Picasso. In his paintings ude,
Green Leaves and Bust (ex-Brody Collection, 1932) and Sleep (e sommeil),
1932, the Nimba profile is Marie-Therese, but it is as if the Nimba has
given him the courage to fully exaggerate this into a new visual
language. Perhaps, more viscerally, In Head of a Woman (Marie-Thérèse
Walter), 1931-1932, he uses clay, which he molded and squeezed with his
own hands as a physical manifestation of his sentiment towards his
subject to develop the forms inspired by his mistress and mapped by the
architecture of his Baga sculpture.Christie's, auctioneer, Paris, FR
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Sale title : Art Africain et Océanien
Sale date : 19 Jun 2013
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Sale Reference : Live Sale
