A wooden sculpture - Prampram - Ghana (No reserve price)
03
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€ 10
No reserve price
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Selected by Dimitri André
Holds a postgraduate degree in African studies and 15 years experience in African art.
Estimate € 650 - € 800
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Description from the seller
Prampram couples—paired wooden figures from the coastal Ga communities of Prampram in southeastern Ghana—occupy a distinct place within the broader canon of Ga memorial and commemorative sculpture. Often carved as standing male–female dyads, these figures are associated with notions of lineage continuity, social prestige, and the careful negotiation of relations between the living and the ancestral realm. Their emergence is linked to a long Ga tradition of sculptural representation in funerary and commemorative contexts, though the paired format known as the Prampram couple appears to have crystallized during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, a period marked by intensified coastal trade, missionary influence, and shifting local political authority.
The male and female figures typically embody complementary ideals within Ga social philosophy. The male is frequently rendered with an upright posture, slightly enlarged head, and well-defined torso, signifying authority, responsibility, and social guardianship. The female is often more softly modeled, with subtly emphasized breasts and hips, invoking concepts of nurturing, fertility, and generative power. Carvers generally favor a restrained aesthetic: elongated limbs, simplified musculature, and a smooth, luminous surface finish produced through repeated handling and the application of oils. Facial features are typically composed, with almond-shaped eyes and a calm, introspective expression that signals both dignity and ancestral presence. These figures are not naturalistic portraits but idealized embodiments of qualities that bind individuals to lineage and community.
In their original contexts, Prampram couples were commissioned to mark significant transitions—funerals of persons of status, the memorialization of lineage founders, or the consolidation of family prestige. Their presence in domestic or lineage shrines created a point of ongoing ritual engagement. Libations poured upon the figures affirmed the continuity of kinship, while the paired format articulated the mutual dependence of gendered roles within Ga society. In some instances, the couple also functioned symbolically to stabilize social relations after the death of an influential family member, providing a material locus for memory and negotiation.
Colonial modernity introduced new dynamics to the production and circulation of these sculptures. As Ga communities confronted rapid economic and religious change, the commissioning of paired figures became one way of asserting lineage identity amid shifting social structures. At the same time, European administrators, missionaries, and early collectors removed many figures from their ritual settings, transferring them into private and institutional collections. Detached from their original environments, Prampram couples came to be appreciated abroad primarily for their aesthetic qualities, often without recognition of their social and ritual significance. Contemporary scholarship, however, emphasizes their role within a living system of memorial practice and the interpretive importance of consulting Ga oral histories when cataloguing such works.
In museum contexts, Prampram couples are best understood as sculptures that embody both artistic refinement and communal memory. Surface wear, pigment traces, and repair marks can provide valuable clues to their ritual handling, while stylistic analysis may help identify specific workshops or carving lineages in the Prampram area. As with many West African commemorative traditions, curatorial presentation benefits from situating the figures within the broader Ga cosmology that values the continual presence of ancestors in the moral and emotional life of the living.
References
Cole, Herbert M., and Doran H. Ross. The Arts of Ghana. Regents of the University of California, 1977.
Mullen, Nancy. “Commemoration and Sculpture in Ga Communities.” African Arts 32, no. 4 (1999): 54–63.
Cole, Herbert M. “Figural Traditions of Coastal Ghana.” Journal of the International African Institute 41, no. 2 (1971): 115–129.
Ross, Doran H. “Ancestral Aesthetics in Southern Ghana.” RES: Anthropology and Aesthetics 17 (1989): 72–87.
Field, M. J. Religion and Medicine of the Ga People. Oxford University Press, 1937.
CAB27134
Height: 67 cm / 67 cm
Weight: 1,3 kg / 1,3 kg
Seller's Story
For over twenty-five years, Wolfgang Jaenicke has been active as a collector and, for the past two decades, as a specialist dealer in African art, with a particular focus on material often subsumed under the term “Tribal Art”. His early engagement with cultural history was shaped by his father’s extensive archive on the former “German Colonies”, a collection of documents, publications and artefacts that introduced him to the evidentiary and historical significance of objects at a young age.
Jaenicke pursued studies in ethnology, art history and comparative law at the Freie Universität Berlin. Motivated by an interest in cultural dynamics beyond the limitations of academic formalism, he left the university to undertake extended research and travel in West and Central Africa. His fieldwork and professional activities took him through Cameroon, Mali, Côte d’Ivoire, Burkina Faso, Togo and Ghana, establishing long-term relationships with artists, collectors, researchers and local institutions.
From 2002 to 2012 he lived primarily in Mali, based in Bamako and Ségou. During this period he directed Tribalartforum, a gallery housed in a historic colonial building overlooking the Ségou harbour. The gallery became a notable site for contemporary and historical cultural production, hosting exhibitions of Bamana sculpture and ceramics, as well as photographic works including those of Malick Sidibé, whose images of the 1970s youth culture in Mali remain internationally influential. The outbreak of the war in Mali in 2012 necessitated the closure of the gallery.
Following his departure from Mali, Jaenicke established his base of operations in Lomé, Togo, where he and his partners maintain a permanent branch. The Jaenicke-Njoya GmbH, founded sixteen years earlier, serves as the organisational and legal framework for these activities. In 2018, the Galerie Wolfgang Jaenicke opened its Berlin location opposite Charlottenburg Palace, operating today with a team of approximately twelve specialists.
A significant focus of the gallery’s curatorial and research work lies in West African bronzes and terracotta. As part of ongoing efforts toward transparency and precise cultural documentation, Jaenicke collaborated with the Technische Universität Berlin’s “Translocation Project”, contributing insight into the circulation of archaeological and ethnographic objects within the international art trade in Lomé. The gallery maintains continuous dialogue with national museums across West Africa and regularly publishes updates on its activities in Lomé and Berlin via its website: wolfgang-jaenicke
Jaenicke’s practice combines long-term field engagement with a commitment to provenance research, museum-level documentation, and the ethical stewardship of cultural heritage. His work continues to bridge local knowledge networks and international scholarly discourse.
Prampram couples—paired wooden figures from the coastal Ga communities of Prampram in southeastern Ghana—occupy a distinct place within the broader canon of Ga memorial and commemorative sculpture. Often carved as standing male–female dyads, these figures are associated with notions of lineage continuity, social prestige, and the careful negotiation of relations between the living and the ancestral realm. Their emergence is linked to a long Ga tradition of sculptural representation in funerary and commemorative contexts, though the paired format known as the Prampram couple appears to have crystallized during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, a period marked by intensified coastal trade, missionary influence, and shifting local political authority.
The male and female figures typically embody complementary ideals within Ga social philosophy. The male is frequently rendered with an upright posture, slightly enlarged head, and well-defined torso, signifying authority, responsibility, and social guardianship. The female is often more softly modeled, with subtly emphasized breasts and hips, invoking concepts of nurturing, fertility, and generative power. Carvers generally favor a restrained aesthetic: elongated limbs, simplified musculature, and a smooth, luminous surface finish produced through repeated handling and the application of oils. Facial features are typically composed, with almond-shaped eyes and a calm, introspective expression that signals both dignity and ancestral presence. These figures are not naturalistic portraits but idealized embodiments of qualities that bind individuals to lineage and community.
In their original contexts, Prampram couples were commissioned to mark significant transitions—funerals of persons of status, the memorialization of lineage founders, or the consolidation of family prestige. Their presence in domestic or lineage shrines created a point of ongoing ritual engagement. Libations poured upon the figures affirmed the continuity of kinship, while the paired format articulated the mutual dependence of gendered roles within Ga society. In some instances, the couple also functioned symbolically to stabilize social relations after the death of an influential family member, providing a material locus for memory and negotiation.
Colonial modernity introduced new dynamics to the production and circulation of these sculptures. As Ga communities confronted rapid economic and religious change, the commissioning of paired figures became one way of asserting lineage identity amid shifting social structures. At the same time, European administrators, missionaries, and early collectors removed many figures from their ritual settings, transferring them into private and institutional collections. Detached from their original environments, Prampram couples came to be appreciated abroad primarily for their aesthetic qualities, often without recognition of their social and ritual significance. Contemporary scholarship, however, emphasizes their role within a living system of memorial practice and the interpretive importance of consulting Ga oral histories when cataloguing such works.
In museum contexts, Prampram couples are best understood as sculptures that embody both artistic refinement and communal memory. Surface wear, pigment traces, and repair marks can provide valuable clues to their ritual handling, while stylistic analysis may help identify specific workshops or carving lineages in the Prampram area. As with many West African commemorative traditions, curatorial presentation benefits from situating the figures within the broader Ga cosmology that values the continual presence of ancestors in the moral and emotional life of the living.
References
Cole, Herbert M., and Doran H. Ross. The Arts of Ghana. Regents of the University of California, 1977.
Mullen, Nancy. “Commemoration and Sculpture in Ga Communities.” African Arts 32, no. 4 (1999): 54–63.
Cole, Herbert M. “Figural Traditions of Coastal Ghana.” Journal of the International African Institute 41, no. 2 (1971): 115–129.
Ross, Doran H. “Ancestral Aesthetics in Southern Ghana.” RES: Anthropology and Aesthetics 17 (1989): 72–87.
Field, M. J. Religion and Medicine of the Ga People. Oxford University Press, 1937.
CAB27134
Height: 67 cm / 67 cm
Weight: 1,3 kg / 1,3 kg
Seller's Story
For over twenty-five years, Wolfgang Jaenicke has been active as a collector and, for the past two decades, as a specialist dealer in African art, with a particular focus on material often subsumed under the term “Tribal Art”. His early engagement with cultural history was shaped by his father’s extensive archive on the former “German Colonies”, a collection of documents, publications and artefacts that introduced him to the evidentiary and historical significance of objects at a young age.
Jaenicke pursued studies in ethnology, art history and comparative law at the Freie Universität Berlin. Motivated by an interest in cultural dynamics beyond the limitations of academic formalism, he left the university to undertake extended research and travel in West and Central Africa. His fieldwork and professional activities took him through Cameroon, Mali, Côte d’Ivoire, Burkina Faso, Togo and Ghana, establishing long-term relationships with artists, collectors, researchers and local institutions.
From 2002 to 2012 he lived primarily in Mali, based in Bamako and Ségou. During this period he directed Tribalartforum, a gallery housed in a historic colonial building overlooking the Ségou harbour. The gallery became a notable site for contemporary and historical cultural production, hosting exhibitions of Bamana sculpture and ceramics, as well as photographic works including those of Malick Sidibé, whose images of the 1970s youth culture in Mali remain internationally influential. The outbreak of the war in Mali in 2012 necessitated the closure of the gallery.
Following his departure from Mali, Jaenicke established his base of operations in Lomé, Togo, where he and his partners maintain a permanent branch. The Jaenicke-Njoya GmbH, founded sixteen years earlier, serves as the organisational and legal framework for these activities. In 2018, the Galerie Wolfgang Jaenicke opened its Berlin location opposite Charlottenburg Palace, operating today with a team of approximately twelve specialists.
A significant focus of the gallery’s curatorial and research work lies in West African bronzes and terracotta. As part of ongoing efforts toward transparency and precise cultural documentation, Jaenicke collaborated with the Technische Universität Berlin’s “Translocation Project”, contributing insight into the circulation of archaeological and ethnographic objects within the international art trade in Lomé. The gallery maintains continuous dialogue with national museums across West Africa and regularly publishes updates on its activities in Lomé and Berlin via its website: wolfgang-jaenicke
Jaenicke’s practice combines long-term field engagement with a commitment to provenance research, museum-level documentation, and the ethical stewardship of cultural heritage. His work continues to bridge local knowledge networks and international scholarly discourse.
Details
Ethnic group/ culture
Prampram
Country of Origin
Ghana
Material
Wood
Sold with stand
No
Condition
Fair condition
Title of artwork
A wooden sculpture
Height
67 cm
Weight
2.6 kg
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
AGB
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