Artwork Page for Female Figure

Details / Information for Female Figure

Female Figure

c. 1940

Africa, West Africa, Mali, Dogon-style maker

Medium
wood
Measurements
Overall: 74.9 cm (29 1/2 in.)
Credit Line
Gift of Katherine C. White 1976.172
Copyright
Copyright
This artwork is known to be under copyright.
Location
Not on view
Print
?

Did You Know?

Trees in the region where Dogon people live are typically slender. To make this sculpture—originally a full figure—would have required an enormous piece of wood.

Description

Most Dogon art is religious and portrays ancestors, priests and priestesses, or mythic beings who serve as intercessors between the living and Amma, the creator god. The raised arms of this figure may refer to the first being created by Amma and its role in ordering and purifying heaven and earth. Another interpretation links the figure with rainmaking rites; blackened figures symbolize the plea for dark rain clouds. A third explanation associates the sculpture with annual planting rites in which priests throw millet grain on the heads of the people—symbolically showering them with the blessings of rain and good crops.
A light-brown wood sculpture depicts a standing figure with arms raised vertically. They have an elongated head with a pointed top, almond-shaped eyes, and patterns of small squares on the cheeks. Raised rectangles with grid patterns cover their chest. A zigzag pattern decorates their right hip. Deep vertical cracks mark the weathered surface, which is fragmented at the base. Their right arm ends in carved fingers, while their left arm is broken.

Female Figure

c. 1940

Africa, West Africa, Mali, Dogon-style maker

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