Tribal Art

African figure rising in a narrow column punctuated by surfaces in circular trays. The subject with a face offering low relief is seated, an object on his knees. Light dry patina, dark residues of ritual practices, erosions.
Carved for the most part to order placed by a family, the Dogon statues can also be the object of worship on the part of the whole community when they commemorate, for example, the foundation of the village. However, their functions remain little known. Alongside Islam, Dogon religious rites are organized around four main cults: the Lébé, relating to fertility, under the spiritual authority of the Hogon, the Wagem, ancestor worship under the authority of the patriarch, the Binou invoking the spirit world and led by the priest of the Binou, and the society of masks concerning the funeral.
Lit. : "Dogon" Hélène Leloup, ed. Somogy, Quai Branly Museum.