71 FIG. 22: Female figure, nkpasopi. Ebrie, Côte d’Ivoire. 19th century. Attributed to the Master of the Rounded Volumes. Museum Rietberg, Zurich. Ex Comte Guy d’Arsy, before 1917; Han Coray, 1928. Photo: Rainer Wolfsberger, © Museum Rietberg, Zurich. African Masters The transformation that occurred in the way Côte d’Ivoire workshops created sculptures explains the fact that few studies were made on the subject of traditional artists of the region, and the results of those that were pursued were modest. As such, we decided to extend the exhibition’s concept to neighboring areas. Afrikanische Meister presents the research of Daniela Bognolo, who has focused on the various Lobi groups. Her work consists most notably of associating corpuses of works with subgroups of this extremely dispersed culture, proposing attributions for sculptures with particular style characteristics to particular artists who worked in given areas (figs. 13 and 14). I personally have focused on Senufo artistic production, and more specifically on a deble figure, one of the most beautiful African sculptures held by the Rietberg Museum. I reviewed its provenance by poring over the notes of dealers as well as any information available on the context of its collection, which occurred at the time of a regional religious conflict. Based on this information, coupled with the refinement of its style, I have proposed an attribution to a master who was once active in the village of Lataha. Other figures very similar to this famous deble have led me also to surmise the existence of a second Master of Lataha, who would have been much younger than the first. I then proceeded to contrast these two pieces with those of three other Senufo workshops (figs. 17–19). Returning to Côte d’Ivoire, Bernard de Grunne has grouped Baule masks and figures—most impressive ones—into ensembles on the basis of resemblance as well as on provenance research performed in museums, libraries, dealers’ archives, and other places far from the subject artworks’ places of origin. His groupings are associated with seven masters. In contrast, Monica Blackmun Visonà’s work on the peoples of the culturally rich southeast Lagoon area unfolded in a very different manner. After initially documenting the functions of a vast body of varied sculptures of relatively homogeneous size and style, an in-depth study of museum collections enabled her to make groupings of them and to distinguish individual creators on the basis of recurring details. Contemporary artistic currents in West Africa, here represented by the three internationally known Ivorian artists mentioned above, are also addressed in Afrikanische Meister. Visonà has brilliantly connected them to traditional creation with her affirmation that “at first glance the works of the three artists presented here seem to differ radically—in terms of both form and subject matter— from those of the ‘old masters.’” Indeed, works by contemporary artists have rarely been exhibited alongside
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