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Artworks

Open a larger version of the following image in a popup: Anonymous Baule artist, Female Spirit Spouse Figure
Open a larger version of the following image in a popup: Anonymous Baule artist, Female Spirit Spouse Figure
Open a larger version of the following image in a popup: Anonymous Baule artist, Female Spirit Spouse Figure
Open a larger version of the following image in a popup: Anonymous Baule artist, Female Spirit Spouse Figure
Open a larger version of the following image in a popup: Anonymous Baule artist, Female Spirit Spouse Figure
Open a larger version of the following image in a popup: Anonymous Baule artist, Female Spirit Spouse Figure
Open a larger version of the following image in a popup: Anonymous Baule artist, Female Spirit Spouse Figure
Open a larger version of the following image in a popup: Anonymous Baule artist, Female Spirit Spouse Figure

Anonymous Baule artist

Female Spirit Spouse Figure
Ivory Coast
Early 20th century
Wood
height 33 cm
height 13 in
Copyright The Artist
€ 6,000.00

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A ‘wife from the other world’ (blolo bla). Every Baule lived with such a spirit spouse; his was blolo bla, hers blolo bian (male). When diviners suspected the spirit spouse...
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A ‘wife from the other world’ (blolo bla). Every Baule lived with such a spirit spouse; his was blolo bla, hers blolo bian (male). When diviners suspected the spirit spouse of causing personal problems (often sexual), the affected individual had to commission a statue for the jealous spirit. That figure needed to be beautiful to avoid further offence; hence, the classic ideal of Baule beauty of these statues: smooth skin; long neck; sophisticated coiffure; raised scarifications on the temples, the neck, the back and the chest; and a torso well-proportioned to the muscular calves and buttocks. Although similar in facture, statues of spirit spouses are generally smaller than those of the equally anthropomorphic asye usu, owned by Baule diviners.

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Provenance

Private Collection, 1978

Galerie Wolfgang Ketterer, Munich, 6 May 1978. Lot 157.

Private Collection, 1979

Christie’s, London, “Tribal Art”, 3 April 1979. Lot 145.

Arcade Gallery/Wengraf, London, UK, 1979

Private collection, Belgium, 2011

Bernaerts, Antwerp, 20 October 2011. Lot 62.

Private Collection, Antwerp, Belgium

Publications

Claessens (Bruno) & Danis (Jean-Louis), “Baule Monkeys”,

Brussels, Fonds Mercator, 2016, p. 114, fig.70

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