This female figure is one of about a dozen works that have been attributed to the same Dogon artist, identified by art historians as the Master of Ogol after a village in the Sanga region where a work in this corpus was collected in 1935. The shape of the head and facial features of works created by the Master are distinctive for the helmetlike head and the unique horizontally stacked mouth-nostrils-chin ensemble, closely framed by the strong vertical nose and cylindrical lip ornament. Works identified as dege dal nda, or "sculptures of the terrace," were only removed from storage for the funerals of rich men, on which occasions they were dressed and displayed on the rooftop terrace of the deceased. Such figures may also have been part of altars established for women who had died during childbirth.
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Artwork Details
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Title:Female dege dal nda (sculpture of the terrace)
Artist:Master of Ogol
Date:18th–19th century
Geography:Mali
Culture:Dogon peoples
Medium:Wood
Dimensions:H. 25 x W. 3 3/4 x D. 4 7/8 in. (63.5 x 9.5 x 12.4 cm)
Classification:Wood-Sculpture
Credit Line:Gift of Lester Wunderman, 1977
Object Number:1977.394.20
Lester Wunderman, New York, until 1977
Brooklyn Museum. "African Art of the Dogon: The Myths of the Cliff Dwellers," April 4, 1973–May 20, 1973.
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. "African Art of the Dogon: The Myths of the Cliff Dwellers," July 15, 1973–September 2, 1973.
New Orleans Museum of Art. "African Art of the Dogon: The Myths of the Cliff Dwellers," September 22, 1973–October 21, 1973.
Kansas City. Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. "African Art of the Dogon: The Myths of the Cliff Dwellers," November 10, 1973–December 9, 1973.
Toledo Museum of Art. "African Art of the Dogon: The Myths of the Cliff Dwellers," January 1, 1974–February 3, 1974.
Austin. Blanton Museum of Art. "African Art of the Dogon: The Myths of the Cliff Dwellers," February 23, 1974–March 24, 1974.
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. "African Art of the Dogon: The Myths of the Cliff Dwellers," April 13, 1974–May 12, 1974.
Dallas Museum of Art. "African Art of the Dogon: The Myths of the Cliff Dwellers," June 5, 1974–July 7, 1974.
The Detroit Institute of Arts. "African Art of the Dogon: The Myths of the Cliff Dwellers," August 1, 1974–September 8, 1974.
Dayton Art Institute. "African Art of the Dogon: The Myths of the Cliff Dwellers," September 28, 1974–October 22, 1974.
Utica. Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute. "African Art of the Dogon: The Myths of the Cliff Dwellers," November 9, 1974–December 8, 1974.
Columbus Museum of Art. "African Art of the Dogon: The Myths of the Cliff Dwellers," January 1, 1975–February 9, 1975.
Art Institute of Chicago. "African Art of the Dogon: The Myths of the Cliff Dwellers," March 1, 1975–April 20, 1975.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Art of the Dogon: Selections from the Lester Wunderman Collection," February 10–July 10, 1988.
Musée Dapper. "Dogon," October 18, 1994–March 13, 1995.
Leuzinger, Elsy, and Johannes Itten. Afrikanische Kunst Aus Schweizer Sammlungen. Gewerbeschule Ider Stadt, 1945.
Monti Franco. "Le Arti Primitive." In Capolavori nei seccoli: Enciclopedia Universale di tutte le arti figurative. Vol. vol. 9. Milan: Fratelli Fabbri Editori, 1963, p. 162.
Millot, Jacques. Arts Connus et Méconnus de l'Afrique Noire: Collection Paul Tishman. Paris: Musée de l'Homme, 1966, no. 14.
Bascom, William Russell. African Arts: An Exhibition at the Robert H. Lowie Museum of Anthropology of the University of California at Berkeley. Berkeley: University of California, Berkeley, 1967.
Martin, Alexander. "Alexander Martin Gallery." In Fine African Sculpture. London: Alexander Martin, 1971, no. 13.
Laude, Jean. African Art of the Dogon: The Myths of the Cliff Dwellers. New York: Brooklyn Museum, 1973, no. 52.
"Advertisement for Michael Oliver." African Arts vol. 13, no. 1 (1979), p. 81.
Vogel, Susan M. For Spirits and Kings: African Art from the Paul and Ruth Tishman Collection. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1981, pp. 1–2, no. 1.
Ezra, Kate. Art of the Dogon: Selections from the Lester Wunderman Collection. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1988, no. 14.
Van Beek, Walter E. A. "Functions of Sculpture in Dogon Religion." African Arts vol. 21, no. 4 (August 1988), pp. 58–65, 91.
Paudrat, Jean-Louis. Dogon. Paris: Editions Dapper, 1994, p. 228.
Leloup, Hélène and Philippe, William Rubin, New York, Richard Serra, Georg Baselitz, and Brunhilde Biebuyck. Dogon Statuary. Strausbourg: Editions Amez, 1994.
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