Gomintogo mask, Dogon - Lot 21

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Lot n° 21
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Estimation :
1200 - 1800 EUR
Gomintogo mask, Dogon - Lot 21
Gomintogo mask, Dogon Mali Early 20th century Carved wood and pigments H. 41 cm Provenance : Gustau Gili Collection, Barcelona David Serra Collection, Barcelona Private collection, Paris In Dogon belief, at the origin of artistic creation, the concept of Nyama is essential. as "a pending energy, impersonal, unconscious, distributed in all men, animals, plants animals, plants, supernatural beings, things and nature, and which tends to make the persevere in its being the support to which it is temporarily (mortal being) ' or eternally (immortal being) eternally (immortal being): this is how heaven, the dead, genies, altars, manure, trees trees, seed, stone, beasts, the color red, men have nyama." (Marcel Griaule, Masques Dogons, 1938, p. 161). This equally dynamic energy, dependent on the soul (kikinu say) in living beings and apparently independent in the case of inanimate inanimate things (Cf. Germaine Dieterlen, Les Âmes des Dogons) is a powerful force for controlling, calming to control, calm and appease, so that it can coexist in harmony with the living beings of society. society. The nyama of the ancestors, of the deceased, lives and swirls with the living. artistic achievements are born of this belief in the immaterial, supernatural vital force cohabiting with the living world, they act as intermediaries, relays and generators, the balance between invisible and living forces. forces. The Nyama is "immediately fixed in another support: altar, mask, amulet" (In Griaule, Dogon masks). Gomintogo, gomtogo in the singular, is a word found in the west, Northwest of the town of Djenné (C.Monteil, Djenné, métropole du delta central du Niger, Paris, 1932, p.3). He refers to this type of mask, such as this magnificent example representing a mammal mammal, "a kind of cervid" (P. de Cenival et Th. Monod, description de la Côte d'Afrique, 1506-1507 Valentin Ferandes, publications of the Comité d'Études historiques et scientifiques de l'A. O.F, Paris, 1938, p.159) With its flesh-colored webbed antlers, inscribed and shaped in light wood, the mask poetically soars into space through an arrangement of geometric shapes, the projection of a the projection of a rounded, flattened headdress curving upwards. The mask features a rectangular face is pierced by two hollowed-out triangular eyes. The facial of the face are powerful in their volume and relief. The nose, starting from the rounded forehead, delineated by a prominent nasal bridge, ends in two broad, blunt wings forming a triangle. Recurrence, resonance and subtle parallelism of repeated shapes, with the mouth following the the same shape. The long, thin ears are represented by two flat palms with slightly slightly curved ends. Beautiful residues of blue pigment persist on the clear, bleached surface. The mask dance was performed to a rhythm known as albarga: "three three strokes of the sticks on the ground, to the right, to the left; crouch, head lowered to the chest". (Marcel Griaule, Masques Dogons, p.421). Following the soothsayer's advice, the shape of this type of mask was drawn on the rock face before being carved out of wood. "The hope was hope that the soul of the gomtogo would follow that of the dead.
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