Knight, N’duleri
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Michael C. Rockefeller
Memorial Collection, bequest of Nelson A. Rockefeller XVIth-XVIIth
century hard patined wood, 1979 © The Metropolitan Museum of
Art, Dist. RMN. Photo Justin Kerr
Land of the Dogons
The Bandiagara Escarpment from Banimoto
photo by Lukecf, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution
Snake,
private collection XVth-XVIth century,iron
© musée du quai Branly, photo Hughes Dubois
The fascinating Dogon Art on display at Quai Branly The art from the Dogon area (now Mali) ranks among the finest and best known art created by African cultures. From April 5 to July 24, 2011, a sensational exhibition at the musée du quai Branly in Paris shows the force of sculptural art developed by the Dogon]]>
Source: theartwolf.com / musée du quai Branly
“It does not suffice to want to be Dogon in the face of Phidias, but it does not suffice to want tobe Phidias in the face of the Dogon”
André Malraux
Standing majestically over the central plateau region of Mali, the Bandiagara Escarpment is a sandstone cliff of up to 500m (1,640 ft) high, stretching about 150 km (almost 100 miles). For many centuries, these cliffs and the surrounding region have been the homeland of the Dogon people, whose fascinating art is the protagonist of a major exhibition at the musée du quai Branly in Paris.
For the exhibition, the Quay Branly has published an excellent press note that includes an introduction by expert Hélène Leloup. “As a place of meetings and exchanges between numerous people, the Dogon plateau was the birthplace of a rich and varied artistic production that evolved over the centuries”, explains Leloup, adding that “this exhibition aims to illustrate the diversity and evolution of form and concept throughout the region, distinguishing between local styles that are identified and shown as such here for the first time.”
EXHIBITION OVERVIEW
After an introduction (“Dogon migrations, origins and history”), the exhibition is organized in three great thematic parts:
· First part: statuary styles in Dogon area
Featuring 133 sculptures, this section of the exhibition shows the great diversity of the Dogon people. Among the pieces exhibited, a stunning figure of a knight, lent by the Metropolitan Museum of New York, shows the elegance and refinement of the N’duleri style
· Second part: anthropologist fascination: paintings and masks
Twenty rupestral paintings and 35 Dogon masks are displayed in this section.
· Third part: vessels of the sacred, collection items
As the press note published by the Quay Branly notes, “the 140 objects exposed in the last section reveal that Dogon sculptors tend to express the original myth when creating daily life objects and architectural components”. These architectural components are well represented with a decorated pillar of a “togu na” (a house supported by pillars), while a marvelous iron figure of a snake shows the mastery of the Dogon blacksmiths.
The exhibition is accompanied by a 416-page catalogue that includes essays by Hélène Leloup, Bernhard Gardi, Lassana Cissé, Alain-Dominique Reymond, Vincent Mazel and Pascale Richardin.
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