MUMUYE SCULPTURE 135 torso. When the arms take the wing-like form mentioned above, they appear to envelop the torso like a sheath. Judging from his comments when interviewed by William Fagg on the occasion of the exhibition Traditional Art from the Colonies at the Art Gallery at the Imperial Institute in London in 1951, Henry Moore’s desire to capture the British Museum’s Mumuye fi gure in a sketch was probably also triggered by his interest in the negative space in that particular sculpture (Moore 1951). This concern would become an important feature in the artist’s own artistic evolution. Many Mumuye statues give an impression of dynamism and seem to be infused by their makers with a sense of movement. The suggestion of mobility may perhaps have grown from certain technical considerations, and indeed a number of fi gures seem to have been carved from a tree trunk that was chosen specifi cally for its subtle or pronounced bend (fi g. 8). A good number of Mumuye fi gures verge to the side, the front, or the back, sometimes slightly and sometimes more signifi cantly. The use of tree trunks with a marked fl exed profi le seems more than mere coincidence. Given that the trunk and arms of many Mumuye statues are usually excessively disproportionate compared to the rest of the body, the hourglass shape of the body is defi ned by the striking negative space that is accomplished by cutting away material between the torso and the arms. The larger the fi gure is, the more diffi cult it is to realize perfect symmetry in the creation of this negative space. The asymmetry resulting from the fact that the arms do not exactly mirror each other has been taken advantage of to serve as an expressive device. Despite their popularity and the number of objects available in collections worldwide, we know little about the contextual settings of Mumuye fi gures. This situation stems from the fact that very little research occurred in situ prior to the vast exodus of fi gurative sculptures during and after the Biafran War (1967–1970). Moreover, even the researchers and travelers who witnessed fi gures in the fi eld were not able to gather much detailed information about them, in part because fi gures lived secret lives and were hidden from sight (Fardon 2011: 250, 259). Conversions to Christianity and Islam combined with
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