A wooden sculpture - Losso - Togo (No reserve price)
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A wooden sculpture attributed to the Losso people of the Niamtougou region in Togo, carved from wood and presented with a stand.
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Description from the seller
Sculpture Losso – Anthropomorphic protective or ancestral figure with abstracted body design
Origin: Niamtougou region, northern Togo
Cultural attribution: Losso (Naoudemba), attributed
Material: Wood, carved, with a dark brown to ochre patina and geometric incised decorations, incl stand.
Dating: Uncertain
Description
This anthropomorphic wooden sculpture from the Niamtougou region of northern Togo is characterized by its squat, compact body, an unusually large, horizontally projecting head, and a remarkably simplified physiognomic representation. Carved from a single piece of wood, the figure has an almost closed, columnar form. The disproportionately large head appears as a broad, lenticular volume with a domed top and a downward-tapering chin. Its horizontal extension significantly exceeds the width of the torso, giving the sculpture a distinctive, almost mushroom-like silhouette. The facial features are reduced to a few sparse characteristics. Two small, indented dots mark the eyes, while a flat, protruding shape suggests the nose. The mouth is rendered as a narrow, horizontal notch. The top of the head displays several diagonally arranged incised lines, possibly representing a stylized hairstyle or ornamental markings. The short, strongly drawn neck forms a distinct transition to the compact torso. The shoulders are broad and rounded, while the arms lie close to the body. Particularly on the visible right side, one arm is discernible as a flat, downward-pointing element, its hand ending in the area of the lower abdomen. The chest area has two small, three-dimensional protrusions, which could suggest a female figure. On the front of the upper body are several intersecting incised lines forming an irregular geometric pattern. The lower body is largely closed and transitions into a broad, disc-shaped base. Individual indentations along the lower edge could represent highly simplified toes or ornamental detailing. The surface displays a dark brown to grayish-brown patina with lighter, ochre-colored abrasions, fine cracks, and partial material loss. Particularly noticeable on the head and lower base are signs of wood aging. The black display base is a modern addition.
Cultural and Geographical Context
The Losso, also known as Naoudemba, are one of the ethnic groups of northern Togo. Their historical settlement areas are concentrated primarily in the landscapes around Niamtougou in the present-day Kara Region. This region forms a cultural transition zone between the northern savannah areas and the mountainous regions further south in Togo. The history of the Losso is characterized by close relationships with neighboring communities, including the Lamba, Kabiyè, and other ethnic groups, whose religious beliefs and material cultures overlap in various ways. Traditional religious practices encompass the relationship with ancestors, local spiritual powers, and guardian deities, which can play an important role within familial and communal contexts. Figurative wooden sculptures are known in the broader cultural context of northern Togo for various functions. They can serve as material representations of spiritual forces, as memorials to the deceased, or as components of domestic and communal places of worship. However, the specific meaning of such objects depends significantly on their original use, their ritual integration, and their social context. Based on its documented origin and its highly abstracted formal language, the present sculpture can be placed within this regional context. A definitive attribution to a specific Losso workshop or a particular local sculptural tradition is not possible without supplementary ethnographic documentation.
Symbolism and Possible Ritual Function
The striking emphasis on the head constitutes the central iconographic feature of the figure. In numerous West African societies, the head holds special significance as the seat of individual identity, personal vitality, or spiritual presence. The disproportionate enlargement of the head could therefore indicate a deliberate emphasis on such ideas. However, it would be methodologically problematic to directly apply these general cultural interpretations to the sculpture in question. The highly simplified facial features lend the figure a supra-individual appearance. It seems less like a portrait of a specific person than like a representation of
a general human or spiritual presence. The arms held close to the body and the closed form reinforce this impression. The small, sculpted protrusions in the chest area could represent female sexual characteristics and thus possibly allude to notions of motherhood, fertility, or feminine protective power. However, a definitive gender cannot be determined from the photograph. The geometric incised lines on the head and torso could also have symbolic meaning. They are reminiscent of stylized body markings or ornamental symbols, the precise function of which remains unclear without ethnographic comparisons. An original use as an ancestral or protective figure seems conceivable within the cultural context of northern Togo. The sculpture could also have been part of a personal or familial cult space. However, no concrete evidence of ritual activation or a specific cultic function has been documented.
Art Historical Analysis
From an art historical perspective, the sculpture embodies a particularly consistent form of anthropomorphic abstraction. Its design is based on a few clearly defined sculptural volumes: the broad, lens-shaped head, the short neck, the compact torso, and the flat base. These elements are connected in such a way as to create a cohesive, almost architectural form. The relationship between the horizontal extent of the head and the vertical orientation of the body is particularly characteristic. While the head forms a broad, serene mass, the torso appears as a compact body, tapering slightly towards the bottom. This contrasting orientation creates a subtle tension within the otherwise static composition. The arms are not depicted as freely movable limbs, but rather as flat, closely fitting relief sections. This preserves the body's sense of unity. The geometric incised lines form a striking contrast to the softly rounded surfaces. They structure the sculptural mass and lend it additional visual differentiation. Similar principles of anatomical reduction and the deliberate exaggeration of individual body parts can be found in the broader context of figurative wood sculpture in northern Togo. The sculptural traditions of the Moba, Lamba, and neighboring communities offer an important point of comparison for art historical analysis. Nevertheless, the present figure, with its broad, lenticular head and compact body, differs significantly from the often elongated, columnar tchitcheri of the Moba. A direct stylistic comparison would therefore not be justified. Rather, the sculpture possesses a distinctive formal appearance that should be considered within the regional diversity of North Togolese wood sculpture.
Art Historical Assessment
The particular artistic quality of this sculpture, attributed to Losso, lies in its radical simplification of the human form and its impressive concentration on a few characteristic formal elements. The large, horizontally projecting head lends the figure a unique silhouette, while the compact body and closely held arms create a calm, composed presence. The sparingly carved facial features and the geometric incised decorations reinforce the impression of a deliberately reduced, yet expressive, visual language. The darkly patinated, partially worn wooden surface lends the object an additional material depth and reveals traces of its carving and subsequent alterations. Within the context of West African savannah art, the figure represents a remarkable example of the artistic possibilities of anthropomorphic abstraction. Its aesthetic impact arises not from anatomical accuracy or ornamental abundance, but from a conscious focus on proportion, volume, and sculptural presence. The cultural attribution to the Losso people seems plausible given its traditional origin in the Niamtougou region, but should be considered provisional in light of stylistic overlaps with neighboring traditions. The precise dating and original ritual function remain unclear without further documentation.
Literature
Christopher D. Roy: Art and Life in Africa. University of Iowa, Iowa City, 1992.
Piet Meyer: Art and Religion of the Lobi. Museum Rietberg, Zurich, 1981. Comparative literature on religious sculpture and spiritual concepts in the West African savannah.
The publications mentioned serve as a general art historical and cultural historical framework. They do not constitute direct documentation.
This does not establish the identity of the present sculpture or a definitive determination of its original function.
Copyright and Scientific Documentation
Some of the information and photographs have been generated with the assistance of artificial intelligence and are based on published sources in ethnography, archaeology, and art history. Original texts and photographs may be protected by copyright. All rights held by the respective copyright holders are reserved.
Inv. No. MAZ32913
Informant: Ouro
Seller's Story
Wolfgang Jaenicke’s engagement with African art did not begin in the field or the marketplace but in a quieter, more inward space—among papers, books, and objects that belonged to his father. The archive on Germany’s former colonies was not arranged to tell a single story; it suggested many. It invited scrutiny rather than reverence, and it taught Jaenicke early on that objects are never mute. They carry time inside them—fracture and continuity held in the same form—and they ask to be read as carefully as texts.
For more than a quarter century, Jaenicke has worked as a collector, dealer, and intermediary, though none of these terms quite captures the shape of his practice. What used to be grouped, too casually, under the heading of “Tribal Art” has never appeared to him as a sealed or historical category. It is, instead, a set of living traditions, constantly negotiating the present. His academic training—in ethnology, art history, and comparative law—provided a grammar. The language itself he learned elsewhere. In Mali, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Burkina Faso, Togo, and Ghana, knowledge emerged slowly, through repeated encounters that hardened into relationships, and through trust built not all at once but over years.
Mali became the gravitational center of this experience. Between 2002 and 2012, Jaenicke lived and worked in Bamako and Ségou, where he ran Tribalartforum, a gallery overlooking the Niger River. The space resisted easy chronology. Sculptures and ceramics shared the room with photography, and works by Malick Sidibé—images of Malian youth in the 1970s, self-assured and exuberant—hung alongside older ritual forms. The effect was not nostalgic but clarifying: past and present did not cancel each other out; they sharpened one another.
The war of 2012 ended this chapter abruptly, as wars tend to do. But it did not dissolve the work. Together with Aguibou Kamaté, Jaenicke regrouped in Lomé, closer to the places where many of the objects originated and to the routes they continue to travel. Since 2018, Berlin has become another point on this map. Galerie Wolfgang Jaenicke now operates opposite Charlottenburg Palace, supported by a small team of specialists. Its focus rests, in particular, on West African bronzes and terracottas—materials shaped by earth and fire, and by forms of memory that resist easy translation.
What distinguishes Jaenicke’s practice is not only its geographical range but its internal tension. Fieldwork is paired with provenance research; commerce is treated as inseparable from responsibility. In collaboration with museums and scholarly initiatives, circulation is framed not as extraction but as an ethical process that remains unfinished. The aim is not to remove objects from the world and seal them off, but to keep them readable within it—to allow them to continue speaking, even as the conditions of their speech change.
------------
Galerie Wolfgang Jaenicke is a Berlin-based gallery specializing in West African sculpture, bronzes, terracottas, masks, and contemporary African art. It is directed by Wolfgang Jaenicke, whose work combines collecting, dealing, provenance research, fieldwork, and archival documentation.
According to the gallery’s own account, Jaenicke studied ethnology, art history, and comparative law and has worked in the field of African art for more than twenty-five years. His activities developed through long-term engagement in countries including Mali, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Burkina Faso, Ghana, and Togo. Rather than presenting African art as a closed historical category, he describes it as a continuing cultural tradition shaped by living communities and changing historical contexts.
A particularly important phase of his career was in Mali, where he lived and worked between roughly 2002 and 2012 in Bamako and Ségou. There he operated Tribalartforum, a gallery that combined historical African sculpture with contemporary African photography, including works by Malick Sidibé. The political and military crisis in Mali in 2012 led to the closure of this phase of activity.
Later, together with Aguibou Kamaté, Jaenicke continued working from Lomé, Togo, before establishing a gallery presence in Berlin near Charlottenburg Palace. The gallery places particular emphasis on West African bronzes, terracottas, Benin and Ife-related works, Nok sculpture, Dogon art, Baule sculpture, Senufo objects, and Yoruba material.
One distinctive aspect of Jaenicke’s public position is his repeated emphasis on provenance transparency and restitution debates. On several published object records, the gallery explicitly discusses issues surrounding export documentation, UNESCO conventions, ownership histories, and communication with scholars and restitution researchers. These statements reflect broader contemporary debates about the circulation of African cultural heritage, legality, collecting history, and museum acquisition practices.
The gallery maintains extensive online archives and catalogues documenting hundreds of African objects, including Benin and Ife bronzes, Nok terracottas, Dogon sculptures, Baule figures, Fon objects, Moba figures, and other West African material.
For researchers interested in the history of the African art trade, Jaenicke represents a later generation of dealers compared with figures such as John J. Klejman. Whereas Klejman belonged to the postwar New York market of the 1950s–1970s, Jaenicke’s work has been shaped by contemporary concerns with field documentation, provenance research, restitution discussions, digital archives, and direct engagement with West African networks and artists.
This text is based on AI Information
Sculpture Losso – Anthropomorphic protective or ancestral figure with abstracted body design
Origin: Niamtougou region, northern Togo
Cultural attribution: Losso (Naoudemba), attributed
Material: Wood, carved, with a dark brown to ochre patina and geometric incised decorations, incl stand.
Dating: Uncertain
Description
This anthropomorphic wooden sculpture from the Niamtougou region of northern Togo is characterized by its squat, compact body, an unusually large, horizontally projecting head, and a remarkably simplified physiognomic representation. Carved from a single piece of wood, the figure has an almost closed, columnar form. The disproportionately large head appears as a broad, lenticular volume with a domed top and a downward-tapering chin. Its horizontal extension significantly exceeds the width of the torso, giving the sculpture a distinctive, almost mushroom-like silhouette. The facial features are reduced to a few sparse characteristics. Two small, indented dots mark the eyes, while a flat, protruding shape suggests the nose. The mouth is rendered as a narrow, horizontal notch. The top of the head displays several diagonally arranged incised lines, possibly representing a stylized hairstyle or ornamental markings. The short, strongly drawn neck forms a distinct transition to the compact torso. The shoulders are broad and rounded, while the arms lie close to the body. Particularly on the visible right side, one arm is discernible as a flat, downward-pointing element, its hand ending in the area of the lower abdomen. The chest area has two small, three-dimensional protrusions, which could suggest a female figure. On the front of the upper body are several intersecting incised lines forming an irregular geometric pattern. The lower body is largely closed and transitions into a broad, disc-shaped base. Individual indentations along the lower edge could represent highly simplified toes or ornamental detailing. The surface displays a dark brown to grayish-brown patina with lighter, ochre-colored abrasions, fine cracks, and partial material loss. Particularly noticeable on the head and lower base are signs of wood aging. The black display base is a modern addition.
Cultural and Geographical Context
The Losso, also known as Naoudemba, are one of the ethnic groups of northern Togo. Their historical settlement areas are concentrated primarily in the landscapes around Niamtougou in the present-day Kara Region. This region forms a cultural transition zone between the northern savannah areas and the mountainous regions further south in Togo. The history of the Losso is characterized by close relationships with neighboring communities, including the Lamba, Kabiyè, and other ethnic groups, whose religious beliefs and material cultures overlap in various ways. Traditional religious practices encompass the relationship with ancestors, local spiritual powers, and guardian deities, which can play an important role within familial and communal contexts. Figurative wooden sculptures are known in the broader cultural context of northern Togo for various functions. They can serve as material representations of spiritual forces, as memorials to the deceased, or as components of domestic and communal places of worship. However, the specific meaning of such objects depends significantly on their original use, their ritual integration, and their social context. Based on its documented origin and its highly abstracted formal language, the present sculpture can be placed within this regional context. A definitive attribution to a specific Losso workshop or a particular local sculptural tradition is not possible without supplementary ethnographic documentation.
Symbolism and Possible Ritual Function
The striking emphasis on the head constitutes the central iconographic feature of the figure. In numerous West African societies, the head holds special significance as the seat of individual identity, personal vitality, or spiritual presence. The disproportionate enlargement of the head could therefore indicate a deliberate emphasis on such ideas. However, it would be methodologically problematic to directly apply these general cultural interpretations to the sculpture in question. The highly simplified facial features lend the figure a supra-individual appearance. It seems less like a portrait of a specific person than like a representation of
a general human or spiritual presence. The arms held close to the body and the closed form reinforce this impression. The small, sculpted protrusions in the chest area could represent female sexual characteristics and thus possibly allude to notions of motherhood, fertility, or feminine protective power. However, a definitive gender cannot be determined from the photograph. The geometric incised lines on the head and torso could also have symbolic meaning. They are reminiscent of stylized body markings or ornamental symbols, the precise function of which remains unclear without ethnographic comparisons. An original use as an ancestral or protective figure seems conceivable within the cultural context of northern Togo. The sculpture could also have been part of a personal or familial cult space. However, no concrete evidence of ritual activation or a specific cultic function has been documented.
Art Historical Analysis
From an art historical perspective, the sculpture embodies a particularly consistent form of anthropomorphic abstraction. Its design is based on a few clearly defined sculptural volumes: the broad, lens-shaped head, the short neck, the compact torso, and the flat base. These elements are connected in such a way as to create a cohesive, almost architectural form. The relationship between the horizontal extent of the head and the vertical orientation of the body is particularly characteristic. While the head forms a broad, serene mass, the torso appears as a compact body, tapering slightly towards the bottom. This contrasting orientation creates a subtle tension within the otherwise static composition. The arms are not depicted as freely movable limbs, but rather as flat, closely fitting relief sections. This preserves the body's sense of unity. The geometric incised lines form a striking contrast to the softly rounded surfaces. They structure the sculptural mass and lend it additional visual differentiation. Similar principles of anatomical reduction and the deliberate exaggeration of individual body parts can be found in the broader context of figurative wood sculpture in northern Togo. The sculptural traditions of the Moba, Lamba, and neighboring communities offer an important point of comparison for art historical analysis. Nevertheless, the present figure, with its broad, lenticular head and compact body, differs significantly from the often elongated, columnar tchitcheri of the Moba. A direct stylistic comparison would therefore not be justified. Rather, the sculpture possesses a distinctive formal appearance that should be considered within the regional diversity of North Togolese wood sculpture.
Art Historical Assessment
The particular artistic quality of this sculpture, attributed to Losso, lies in its radical simplification of the human form and its impressive concentration on a few characteristic formal elements. The large, horizontally projecting head lends the figure a unique silhouette, while the compact body and closely held arms create a calm, composed presence. The sparingly carved facial features and the geometric incised decorations reinforce the impression of a deliberately reduced, yet expressive, visual language. The darkly patinated, partially worn wooden surface lends the object an additional material depth and reveals traces of its carving and subsequent alterations. Within the context of West African savannah art, the figure represents a remarkable example of the artistic possibilities of anthropomorphic abstraction. Its aesthetic impact arises not from anatomical accuracy or ornamental abundance, but from a conscious focus on proportion, volume, and sculptural presence. The cultural attribution to the Losso people seems plausible given its traditional origin in the Niamtougou region, but should be considered provisional in light of stylistic overlaps with neighboring traditions. The precise dating and original ritual function remain unclear without further documentation.
Literature
Christopher D. Roy: Art and Life in Africa. University of Iowa, Iowa City, 1992.
Piet Meyer: Art and Religion of the Lobi. Museum Rietberg, Zurich, 1981. Comparative literature on religious sculpture and spiritual concepts in the West African savannah.
The publications mentioned serve as a general art historical and cultural historical framework. They do not constitute direct documentation.
This does not establish the identity of the present sculpture or a definitive determination of its original function.
Copyright and Scientific Documentation
Some of the information and photographs have been generated with the assistance of artificial intelligence and are based on published sources in ethnography, archaeology, and art history. Original texts and photographs may be protected by copyright. All rights held by the respective copyright holders are reserved.
Inv. No. MAZ32913
Informant: Ouro
Seller's Story
Wolfgang Jaenicke’s engagement with African art did not begin in the field or the marketplace but in a quieter, more inward space—among papers, books, and objects that belonged to his father. The archive on Germany’s former colonies was not arranged to tell a single story; it suggested many. It invited scrutiny rather than reverence, and it taught Jaenicke early on that objects are never mute. They carry time inside them—fracture and continuity held in the same form—and they ask to be read as carefully as texts.
For more than a quarter century, Jaenicke has worked as a collector, dealer, and intermediary, though none of these terms quite captures the shape of his practice. What used to be grouped, too casually, under the heading of “Tribal Art” has never appeared to him as a sealed or historical category. It is, instead, a set of living traditions, constantly negotiating the present. His academic training—in ethnology, art history, and comparative law—provided a grammar. The language itself he learned elsewhere. In Mali, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Burkina Faso, Togo, and Ghana, knowledge emerged slowly, through repeated encounters that hardened into relationships, and through trust built not all at once but over years.
Mali became the gravitational center of this experience. Between 2002 and 2012, Jaenicke lived and worked in Bamako and Ségou, where he ran Tribalartforum, a gallery overlooking the Niger River. The space resisted easy chronology. Sculptures and ceramics shared the room with photography, and works by Malick Sidibé—images of Malian youth in the 1970s, self-assured and exuberant—hung alongside older ritual forms. The effect was not nostalgic but clarifying: past and present did not cancel each other out; they sharpened one another.
The war of 2012 ended this chapter abruptly, as wars tend to do. But it did not dissolve the work. Together with Aguibou Kamaté, Jaenicke regrouped in Lomé, closer to the places where many of the objects originated and to the routes they continue to travel. Since 2018, Berlin has become another point on this map. Galerie Wolfgang Jaenicke now operates opposite Charlottenburg Palace, supported by a small team of specialists. Its focus rests, in particular, on West African bronzes and terracottas—materials shaped by earth and fire, and by forms of memory that resist easy translation.
What distinguishes Jaenicke’s practice is not only its geographical range but its internal tension. Fieldwork is paired with provenance research; commerce is treated as inseparable from responsibility. In collaboration with museums and scholarly initiatives, circulation is framed not as extraction but as an ethical process that remains unfinished. The aim is not to remove objects from the world and seal them off, but to keep them readable within it—to allow them to continue speaking, even as the conditions of their speech change.
------------
Galerie Wolfgang Jaenicke is a Berlin-based gallery specializing in West African sculpture, bronzes, terracottas, masks, and contemporary African art. It is directed by Wolfgang Jaenicke, whose work combines collecting, dealing, provenance research, fieldwork, and archival documentation.
According to the gallery’s own account, Jaenicke studied ethnology, art history, and comparative law and has worked in the field of African art for more than twenty-five years. His activities developed through long-term engagement in countries including Mali, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Burkina Faso, Ghana, and Togo. Rather than presenting African art as a closed historical category, he describes it as a continuing cultural tradition shaped by living communities and changing historical contexts.
A particularly important phase of his career was in Mali, where he lived and worked between roughly 2002 and 2012 in Bamako and Ségou. There he operated Tribalartforum, a gallery that combined historical African sculpture with contemporary African photography, including works by Malick Sidibé. The political and military crisis in Mali in 2012 led to the closure of this phase of activity.
Later, together with Aguibou Kamaté, Jaenicke continued working from Lomé, Togo, before establishing a gallery presence in Berlin near Charlottenburg Palace. The gallery places particular emphasis on West African bronzes, terracottas, Benin and Ife-related works, Nok sculpture, Dogon art, Baule sculpture, Senufo objects, and Yoruba material.
One distinctive aspect of Jaenicke’s public position is his repeated emphasis on provenance transparency and restitution debates. On several published object records, the gallery explicitly discusses issues surrounding export documentation, UNESCO conventions, ownership histories, and communication with scholars and restitution researchers. These statements reflect broader contemporary debates about the circulation of African cultural heritage, legality, collecting history, and museum acquisition practices.
The gallery maintains extensive online archives and catalogues documenting hundreds of African objects, including Benin and Ife bronzes, Nok terracottas, Dogon sculptures, Baule figures, Fon objects, Moba figures, and other West African material.
For researchers interested in the history of the African art trade, Jaenicke represents a later generation of dealers compared with figures such as John J. Klejman. Whereas Klejman belonged to the postwar New York market of the 1950s–1970s, Jaenicke’s work has been shaped by contemporary concerns with field documentation, provenance research, restitution discussions, digital archives, and direct engagement with West African networks and artists.
This text is based on AI Information
Details
Ethnic group/ culture
Losso
Country of Origin
Togo
Material
Wood
Sold with stand
Yes
Condition
Fair condition
Title of artwork
A wooden sculpture
Height
18 cm
Weight
490 g
Authenticity
Original/official
Sold by
GermanyVerified
protop
Rechtliche Informationen des Verkäufers
- Unternehmen:
- Jaenicke Njoya GmbH
- Repräsentant:
- Wolfgang Jaenicke
- Adresse:
- Jaenicke Njoya GmbH
Klausenerplatz 7
14059 Berlin
GERMANY - Telefonnummer:
- +493033951033
- Email:
- w.jaenicke@jaenicke-njoya.com
- USt-IdNr.:
- DE241193499
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