Wood Figure / Statue "singiti" depicting a male anchestor. Originated from the Hemba region, DR Congo
Carved wood.
Dimensions:
H 48 cm.
Provenance:
- Galerie Maria Wyss, Basel.
- Stettler-Schnell Collection, Switzerland
- Hammer Auction 71
This figure, radiating calm and at the same time instilling respect, is an idealised portrait figure of a specific male ancestor. Through it, the owners contact the ancestor depicted in order to ask him for protection for their family and their goods.
The lovingly carved sculpture was kept in a shrine that could house several figures. The multi-layered patina, grown through sacrifice and use, testifies to its ritual use.
The confidence in handling form, proportion and volume, as well as the successful interplay between abstraction and naturalism, elevate this well-balanced work to an exemplary example of the talent of African sculptors.
The typical standing figure is characterised by an increase in proportions towards the top. The short legs support a comparatively overlong unadorned central body, which is then crowned by a carefully designed head.
The face with its graceful nose and arched eyebrows is adorned by a bonnet-shaped hairstyle with a carved hair band. The dreamy eyes and small mouth give the face a fascinating internalised expression.
Further reading:
Neyt, François (1975). Approche des Arts Hemba. Villiers-le-Bel: Arts d'Afrique Noire.
The collection of non-European art of Peter Stettler and Erica Stettler-Schnell comprised about 500 objects with a focus on small bronzes, thumb pianos and textiles, which they acquired mainly in Switzerland and Paris.
Excerpt from the "Jahrbuch z'Rieche" (zrieche.ch), author: Dorothea Christ. "Peter Stettler and Erica Stettler-Schnell.
" During their training period at the Allgemeine Gewerbeschule Basel (today "Schule für Gestaltung"), they were not only both students of the Riehen artist Gustav Stettler, but also grew together with him to form a family: Peter Stettler (born 1939), the son, and Erica Schnell (born 1940), the daughter-in-law. They are both proud to have been students of Walter Bodmer, Martin Christ and Gustav Stettler, whom they found to be extraordinarily stimulating teachers, and they also acknowledge in all naturalness that the influence of their teachers is clearly noticeable in their early works. Why should one overlook or even deny that one stands in a tradition? .... Particularly fruitful on the path to independence were the months spent in the Basel studio of the Cité des Arts in Paris, where Stettler and his wife were able to work in 1967. Peter Stettler continuously developed the technical mastery of his means in painting and graphic art."