Statuette - Pygmy - Cameroon (No reserve price)

Pygmy statuette – Cameroon – around the 1960s

A silent and radical presence, as close as possible to the essence of humanity.

This statuette attributed to the pygmy peoples of Cameroon (probably the Baka or related groups of the equatorial forests) is distinguished by an extreme economy of means, a hallmark of a rare sculptural production deeply rooted in a forest-based way of life.

The figure stands upright, facing forward, in a straight and almost austere posture. The body is treated as a vertical, elongated block, without decorative embellishment, where the arms pressed along the torso reinforce the impression of restraint and concentration. This rigorous frontal stance evokes less narration than presence, almost a vigil.

The face, soberly sculpted, bears features pared down to the essential: almond-shaped eyes half-closed, a discreet mouth, volumes barely revealed. The expression is interiorized, contemplative, conveying an intimate relationship with the invisible world, typical of societies where the spiritual is inseparable from daily life.

The surface of the wood, marked by wear, impacts, and rubbing, bears witness to long handling. The patina, dark and irregular, is the result of real use, probably linked to domestic ritual practices, protection, or symbolic transmission. Here, nothing ostentatious: everything is functional, lived, embodied.

Unlike the grand hierarchies of sculptural tradition, pygmy productions are rare on the market because they were neither intended for exchange nor produced in series. They belong to an art of necessity, deeply linked to the forest, to ancestry, and to tutelary spirits. This formal radicality, almost archaic, today appeals to enthusiasts of so-called first-generation objects, where the object precedes any aesthetic codification.

Dating to the 1960s, this statuette stands as a valuable testimony to a poorly documented corpus, valued for its primitive strength, its authenticity, and its direct human expressiveness.

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