NUPE POST 4, Nigeria

Photographs © Tim Hamill

NUPE, POST 4, 34", $300, SOLD

Most Nupe art is abstract, with only some abstracted animals in relief on their doors and rare pots.
The large houseposts were supports for beams or the roof. These would be extremely difficult or expensive to ship. The smaller ones predate and are possible influences on 20th C. sculptors such as Brancusi, whose columns and bases are similar in spirit to these traditional Nupe works. Although placed in the ground, they were ceremonial, not structural. Numbers 7 and 11 were originally joined with other pieces, probably for something similar to a bedframe.

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