240611 - 2 Antique African couple Dogon sculptures - Mali.
2 Antique African couple Dogon sculptures - Mali.
Hand carved from a single piece of wood.
Height: 53 cm & 52 cm and collected in Ireli, a village in the Bandiagara Cliff in the Bandiagara Cercle
This 2 Dogon sculptures dates from the end of the 19th century and comes from my private collection, with a certificate of authenticity.
The 400,000 Dogon live 180 miles south of Timbuktu on the cliffs of Bandiagara, which dominate the plains for over 150 miles. They speak approximately 120 dialects, many of which are not mutually comprehensible. At first hunters, now on their small fields they cultivate millet, sorghum, wheat, and onion. The millet is stored in high quadrangular granaries around which they build their houses. Because of the difficult approach to these regions and the aridity of the climate, the Dogon have been isolated and hence were able to conserve their ancient religious habits and ways of making the necessary implements, their carvings.