118 5. APPENDIX Succession of Holly Keko style sculptors, with references to the various objects attributed to them by the oral traditions of the village of Holly or to objects that may have been created by other sculptors in their immediate vicinity. Wibrika Pale (c. 1800–c. 1870), initiator of the style (fi g. 3, statues 2a and 2b, and fi g. 7). Magnuor Pale (c. 1830–c. 1899), maternal nephew of Wibrika and thiteldara kotin of the Holly Keko style (fi g. 3, statues 3a, 3b, and 4; fi gs. 9, 12, 13, 14, 15, and 24). Gnokithe Kambou (c. 1880–c. 1950/55), second-to-last son of Magnuor (fi g. 3, statue 5; fi gs. 20, 21, and 22). Bangite Síb (c. 1910–c. 1995), son of Magnuor’s older brother, the style’s last titled sculptor in Burkina Faso (fi g. 11). Information about these traditions was obtained in Holly between 1984 and 1990 from Ontore Kambou and the village elders, in 1989 in Keko from the doyen of the Pale, and in N’kpéio and Bagara from Bangite Sib and his sons. BIBLIOGRAPHY Afrika-Ozeanien. 55. Auktion, auction catalog, Munich, Galerie Wolfgang Ketterer, 1982. Bognolo, Daniela. “La fi gure de l’ancêtre : mémoire et sacralisation,” in Michèle Fiéloux, Jacques Lombard, and Jeanne-Marie Kambou-Ferrand (eds.), Images d’Afrique et Sciences sociales : les pays lobi, birifor et dagara (actes du colloque de Ouagadougou, 10–15 December 1990), Paris, Karthala and ORSTOM, 1993, pp. 446–457. ———. “Djetó ! fais attention ! Le ‘chemin de la sculpture’ chez les Lobi du Burkina Faso,” Journal des Africanistes, 67 (1), 1997, pp. 123–133. ———. Lobi, 5 Continents Éditions (Visions d’Afrique), Milan, 2007. ———. “Die Kunst der Lobi. Afrikanische Meister und ihre Ausdrucksformen,” in Afrikanische Meister: Kunst der Elfenbeinküste, exhibition catalog, Museum Rietberg Zurich, Kunst und Ausstellungshalle der Bundesrepublik Deutschland Bonn, Scheidegger & Spiess, 2014, pp. 179–208. ———. “Art lobi : les styles et ses maîtres,” dans Les Maîtres de la sculpture de Côte d’Ivoire, Exhibition catalog, Musée du Quai Branly/Skira, Paris, 2014, pp. 179-208. Focillon, Henri. Vie des formes, PuF (Quadrige), Paris, 2013 (1st edition, 1934). Holas, Bohumil. Arts de la Côte d’Ivoire. Les trésors du musée d’Abidjan, exhibition catalog, Musée des Beaux- Arts, Vevey, 1969. ———. Sculptures ivoiriennes, Centre des sciences humaines (CSH), Abidjan, 1969. In Pursuit of Beauty: The Myron Kunin Collection of African Art, auction catalog, Sotheby’s, New York, November 11, 2014. Klever, Ulrich. Bruckmann’s Handbuch der Afrikanischen Kunst, Bruckmann, Munich, 1975. Lehuard, Raoul. “La collection William Brill,” Arts d’Afrique noire, 26, 1978, pp. 17–22. Massa, Gabriel and Jean-Claude Laurent. Sculptures des Trois Volta, Éditions Sépia/Société des amateurs de l’art africain, Paris, 2001. Meyer, Piet. Kunst und Religion der Lobi, exhibition catalog, Museum Rietberg, Zurich, 1981. Oceanic and African Art, auction catalog, Paris, Sotheby’s, November 30, 2010. Ricqlès, François (de). Arts primitifs, auction catalog, Paris, Drouot-Montaigne, June 6, 1999. treatment of the head and the tapering aspect of the body. At the same time, certain simplifi cations are apparent that point to an undeniable evolution of the style. Protrusions at the elbows and the shoulder blades have disappeared, while those of the clavicles remain present. The elongated chest of the fi gure formerly in the Brill Collection is more closely related to Gnokithe’s work, but the extremely tapered aspect of the body and the simplifi cation of certain details that are still present in the Miehler Collection statue seem to indicate that this example is among the sculptor’s later works. Two other statues that are probably very old also show characteristics of the Holly Keko style. One was put up for sale at auction in 1982 by Galerie Wolfgang Ketterer (fi g. 23), and the other, formerly in the Lady Hardwicke Collection, was sold at Drouot-Montaigne in Paris in 199925 (fi g. 24). The bodies of both sculptures had been eroded and mutilated by the passage of time, but the overall impression they made was reminiscent of the majestic fi gure by Magnuor Pale once in the Ginzberg Collection and subsequently owned by Myron Kunin. However, the equilibrium of form typical of Pale’s work loses defi nition in the elongation of body elements, more typical of the works by Gnokithe. The attention to detail in the treatment of the head seen in the fi gure formerly in the Lady Hardwicke Collection again is reminiscent of Magnuor’s work, even though other features distance it: pierced ears, nearly straight eyebrow arches, a thicker neck, and a coiffure that falls behind the neck in a less pronounced manner (fi g. 25). The simplifi cation of a number of details seen on the fi gure sold by Galerie Ketterer and the loss of a certain fl uidity of forms suggest that the object may be the work of a sculptor who had associations with the thiteldara kotina of the style. A certain number of sculptors borrowed from the canons of the Holly Keko style, but their works have neither the austerity that emanates from the older sculptures in the Kou thilduu, nor the power that the fl uidity of the sculptural forms that represented this group’s cultural identity conferred upon them. That said, all of these objects, even when their attribution or indeed authenticity is unclear, contribute in some way to the reconstruction of the history of the style. Studying them allows a better understanding of the details that were part of the style’s formal evolution across its history and, ultimately, its inevitable transformation into a commercial form. “A style,” wrote Henri Focillon, “is a development, a coherent group of forms, united by reciprocal affi nities, but always in search of harmony that is made and undone through diversity.”26 FIG. 22 (above): Effi gy of Djotir Kambou, son of Ithe Da, created around 1940 by the Lobi sculptor Gnokithe Kambou (c. 1880–c. 1950/55). Photo: Daniela Bognolo (from fi g. 2). FIG. 23 (below): Male fi gure in the Holly Keko style. Softwood, earthen patina. H: 82 cm. Drawing after a photo from Munich, 1982, courtesy of Galerie Wolfgang Ketterer, published in the Yale-Van Rijn Archive of African Art, no. 0039341. FEATURE
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