A WOOD MILLET POUNDER

A WOOD MILLET POUNDER
A WOOD MILLET POUNDER
Mali, Dogon

147,5 cm high

Provenance: Guido Gentili collection, acquired at Gent (Belgium) at the end of the '60s.

According to Ezio Bassani ("Arte africana", Milan 2012, p. 33), regarding a Dogon statue with this subject in a private collection, the theme of the miller pillar is rather rare in the field of Dogon sculpture, despite the fact that this cereal is the basis of the food of the Sahel populations, in addition to being the main ingredient together with the blood for the sacrificial patina mixture. It is likely that these images are a three-dimensional representation of the celebration of women at work.
In this successful example, the dynamism of the slender body poetically contrasts with the hieratic expression of the face, all plastically balanced by the long cylindrical mortar that seems to ensure stability to the entire community, as well as to the sculpture.