Bozo Polychrome Wood Stool with Antelope Caryatid, Mali

West Africa, Mali, Bozo. A carved wooden stool whose round seat rests on the back of a stooping, spotted antelope. The animal stands on an oval green plinth with its head bowed toward the ground. Its long ears or horns rise to brace the underside of the seat, and its tail curls up to support it from behind. The body is painted deep maroon and scattered with white blotches ringed in orange. The ears are painted bright yellow, and the hooves are picked out in white. The whole surface is painted in a confident, rapid hand. The seat has a dished white center, a blue band of incised radiating lines, and a blackened rim. The palette and the flat, cut-out treatment of the limbs recall the painted animal puppets of the Middle Niger, so the stool reads as much as a sculpture as a piece of furniture. The Bozo are fishing peoples of the inland Niger Delta in central Mali, and they are often counted among the oldest settled inhabitants of the river. They are known in the arts for their part in sogo bo ("the animals come out"), a puppet masquerade performed with their Bamana and Somono neighbors. In these performances, carved and brightly painted creatures of the bush and the water rise above cloth-draped frames to dance at river festivals. Antelope, buffalo, hyenas, birds, and fish all appear, and each carries its own songs and associations. Stools and other domestic objects from the region often borrow the vocabulary of those performances: flat, silhouetted animal bodies, bold dots and lozenges, and commercial enamel paints. These paints spread widely in the mid-20th century and give the work its saturated, almost cheerful palette. Carving a supporting animal beneath a seat is a common West African solution to the stool form, and here it turns a practical object into a small piece of theater. A Certificate of Authenticity will accompany all winning bids. Item # 205810

Estimate:$250

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