Art of the
Dogon
A private collection of Dogon material culture
Jan Baptist Bedaux
Bedaux Art Editions
Brussels 2012
table of contents
For my daughter Lisanne Louise Bedaux
foreword
sculpture
wood
bronze and other copper alloys
iron
stone and terracotta
masks
miscellaneous ritual objects
hatchet and adze
yo domolo crook
objects from the wagem
binu irons
other ritual objects
architectural elements
musical instruments
adornments
bracelets
necklaces
pendants
rings
neck rests
wood
iron
votive neckrests
objects for daily use
weapons and hunting attributes
stools
pulleys
knives
spoons
hairpins
pipes, lamps and other objects
receptacles
textile and clothing
descriptions
exhibitions
literature
1 - 74
75 - 92
93 - 129
130 - 135
136 - 162
163 - 169
170 - 176
177 - 188
189 - 209
210 - 226
227 - 248
249 - 258
259 - 312
313 - 342
343 - 376
377 - 424
425 - 491
492 - 494
495 - 508
509 - 524
525 - 532
533 - 540
541 - 557
558 - 567
568 - 585
586 - 603
604 - 639
640 - 650
foreword
In the summer of 1975 I had my first encounter with the cultures of the Dogon
historian. Ethnographic artefacts – in which I was just as interested – were much easier to
and Tellem. This was at Utrecht University’s Institute for Human Biology, whose
purchase on a small budget.
exhibition represented over ten years’ research by the institute’s staff in the Republic
My 35 years of collecting since then have created a collection that gives a broad view of
of Mali, who had worked where the bend in the Niger touches the southern fringes
the material culture of the Dogon and Tellem. In my view, the value of the collection lies
of the Sahara, where the mighty Bandiagara Escarpment arises. In total, they had
not just in its breadth, but also in the sheer variety of items. For when compiling it, I was
undertaken five expeditions to the area, wishing to establish the identity of the people
always guided by my ongoing fascination with the wide diversities within the Tellem and
who had lived there before its current inhabitants, the Dogon, and to research the
Dogon cultures.
relationships between the two populations. Over the years, they investigated 29 caves
around Sanga, and five more to the northeast, round Nokara and Hombori.
I would like to refer briefly to one of these items (no. 249): a so-called ‘Dogon harp’, an
instrument from the Tellem period. Its financial value may be relatively insignificant.
One finding of the research was that the modern-day Dogon could not have
But if we consider that this instrument dates from the early eleventh century and has
descended from the people who had once used these caves for burial purposes – a
survived nearly intact – including the neck, bridge and part of the skin over the sound
people to whom the Dogon, when arriving at the escarpment in the fifteenth century,
box – it is suddenly apparent that we are dealing with the earliest and most complete string
referred as ‘Tellem’; literally, ‘we found them’ (Tellem 1975). While it is possible that
instrument known to have originated in sub-Saharan Africa. It is thus of inestimable value
some Tellem were absorbed into the Dogon population, the number would have
to the history of the continent’s music. The instrument was made with great precision
been so small that the genetic characteristics of the Dogon remained unchanged. It is
and craftsmanship, suggesting that it had many predecessors in a long tradition of such
also the case that by the time the Dogon arrived in the area, the Tellem population,
instruments. In a similar way, the collection contains several items that can enrich our
which had lived there since the eleventh century, had been almost entirely eradicated
knowledge of the Tellem/Dogon culture.
by droughts and epidemics (R. Bedaux & Van der Waals 2004). This makes it all the
more remarkable that the material culture of the late Tellem was so deeply interwoven
Over recent decades, a series of publications by several authors has helped to map and
with that of the early Dogon that it is now difficult – and sometimes impossible – to
interpret the material culture of the Dogon, providing ever-greater evidence of the value
distinguish between items from the two cultures.
and importance of this ancient African culture; these publications include Ezra 1988;
Leloup 1994; R. Bedaux & Van der Waals 2004; Blom 2010 and Paris 2011. When, in
The exhibition in Utrecht in 1975 showed a wealth of items that had been placed in
2009, the Netherlands ratified the 1970 UNESCO treaty, it prompted me to classify the
the caves as grave gifts for the Tellem dead – artefacts that were a constant inspiration
collection, which consisted by then of over 600 items, and to add the catalogue to the
to me when I founded my collection. In the same year, I acquired my first Tellem
series. I hope that this book will find its way to the many lovers of Dogon art.
neckrests, which were included two years later in the Tellem exhibition in the Afrika
Museum in Berg en Dal. These were soon followed by the first statues, which I bought
in Paris from Michel Huguenin (no. 38), Félicia Dialossin (Argiles, nos. 1, 22) and
Dr. Jan Baptist Bedaux
Robert Duperrier (nos. 6, 41). Even back then, they were expensive for a junior art
Utrecht, autumn 2011
wood
1
1.1
1.2
22
22.1
22.2
22.3
bronze
and other
copper alloys
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
118
119
120
121
124
122
123
125
126
137
138
214
214.1
214.2
214.3
214.4
214.5
215
215.1
216
217
218
227
228
254
255
256
257
258
331
332
332.1
333
334
pendants
343
344
345
346
347
348
349
350
382
383
384
385
386
387
388
389
431
432
433
434
435
436
437
stools
525
526
527
528
528.1
573
574
575
575.1
576
577
578
579
580
581
582
583
584
585
604
605
606
607
642
643
descriptions
sculpture
5.
wood
1.
2.
Standing anhtropomorphic
figure with raised arms
Tellem
Wood, ritual patina, h. 45.1 cm.
Provenance: Justin Barthels, Maastricht (late seventies).
6.
Standing anthropomorphic
figure with raised arms
11.
Tellem
Wood, ritual patina, h. 43 cm.
Provenance: Robert Duperrier,
Paris (late seventies).
7.
Tellem (komakan style)
Wood, traces of ritual patina,
h. 39.7 cm.
Provenance: Dalton Somaré
(Leonardo Vigorelli), Milan;
Arturo Schwarz, Milan.
Remark: Label on the base with
the number “AF22ST”.
4.
12.
18.
Tellem
Wood, ritual patina, h. 57.3 cm.
Remark: As the figure was exposed
to water, most of the ritual patina
has gone.
9.
Anthropomorphic ladder figure
Tellem-Dogon
Wood, iron, ritual patina,
h. 27.8 cm.
Provenance: Argiles (Félicia Dialossin), Paris (early eighties).
23.
Anthropomorphic figure
Dogon
Wood, h. 41.8 cm.
24.
Antropomorphic figure
Dogon
Wood, h. 25 cm.
Provenance: André Kirbach, Düsseldorf.
Tellem
Wood, h. 50.3 cm.
Provenance: Ufundi (Emmanuel
Ameloot), Brussels.
Standing anthropomorphic
figure
25.
19.
Tellem
Wood, h. 14 cm.
Provenance: Jean-Pierre Laprugne.
Paris..
26.
13.
Standing anthropomorphic
figure with raised arms
Wood, ritual patina, h. 37.9 cm.
Provenance: Khepri van Rijn,
Amsterdam.
Remark: Dated AD 1300-1394
(95%) (Utrecht University, Dept.
Physics and Astronomy, AMS
analysis, 21-12-1998, Lab Code
7768; C14 [BP] 638 ± 30).
Anthropomorphic figure
20.
Tellem
Wood, ritual patina, h. 17 cm.
Provenance: Hans van Oosterom,
Hilversum.
Remark: In the bottom of the
sculpture is a cavity, 3 cm.
in diameter, possibly to mix
medicins.
14.
Dog with young in her mouth
Tellem/Dogon
Wood, h. 7, l. 22.5 cm.
15.
Two headed dog
Tellem/Dogon
Wood, ritual patina, h. 6.4, l. 19.6
cm.
Provenance: John Levy, Paris.
Horse and rider
Tellem/Dogon
Wood, ritual patina, h. 27.4 cm.
Provenance: Paolo Morigi,
Magliaso.
Standing figure of a male figure
Dogon (djennenke)
Wood, h. 58.8 cm.
Provenance: Christie’s Paris 2005,
lot 100; Han Coray, Agnuzzo.
Published: Sammlung Coray
1968, nr. 7.
Remark: The head of the figure is
shaped in the form of the glans of
a penis. The sculpture bears the
number ” HC24” in white pigment.
Standing anthropomorphic
figure
Tellem
Wood, 23.5 cm.
21.
Kneeling anthropomorphic
bound figure
Dogon
Wood, ritual patina, h. 32.6 cm.
Provenance: Poekelien Lingbeek,
Baarn; Collection Verdijk, The
Hague.
Remark: The figure’s hands are
bound together on his back.
Standing anthropomorphic
figure
Standing anthropomorphic
figure with raised arms
Standing anthropomorphic
figure with raised arms
Tellem
Wood, ritual patina, h. 36.5 cm.
Provenance: Cees Kuijlman, Maasland; Harvey Menist, Amsterdam.
Standing female figure with
raised arms
Kneeling anthropomorphic
figure
Standing anthropomorphic
figure with left hand raised
Tellem
Wood, ritual patina, h. 47.1 cm.
8.
22.
Tellem
Wood, ritual patina, h. 16.5 cm.
Standing anthropomorphic
figure with raised arms
Tellem
Wood, ritual patina, h. 36.2 cm.
Provenance: Dalton Somaré
(Leonardo Vigorelli), Milan;
Arturo Schwarz, Milan.
Standing male figure with
raised arms
Tellem
Wood, ritual patina, 17 cm.
Standing anthropomorphic
figure with raised arms
Tellem
Wood, ritual patina, h. 20.5 cm.
Provenance: Hans van Oosterom,
Hilversum.
3.
16.
17.
Standing anthropomorphic
figure with raised arms
Tellem
Wood, ritual patina, h. 38.5 cm.
Provenance: A. Binder-Schuerman, Utrecht; Ursula Heys-Voorhuis, Sint Agatha.
Published: Tellem 1975, ill.; R.
Bedaux 1977, p. 23, ill. 48-18 and
p. 55.
Exhibited: Utrecht 1975; Berg en
Dal 1977.
10.
Tellem
Wood, h. 38.5 cm.
Standing anthropomorphic
figure with raised arms
Tellem
Wood, ritual patina, h. 38.2 cm.
Provenance: Argiles (Félicia Dialossin), Paris (late seventies); Pierre
Langlois, Paris.
Remark: The sculpture bears the
number “I.1.01X L004” in white
ink.
Standing anthropomorphic
figure with raised arms
27.
Kneeling maternity with two
children
Dogon (bombou-toro style)
Wood, iron, ritual patina,
h. 36 cm.
Provenance: Tribal design (Els
Verhey), Amsterdam; Will Hoogstraate, Amsterdam.
Published: Hoogstraate 1982.
Exhibited: Amsterdam 1982; Paris
2009.
Remark: The mother carries an
iron knife on her left upper arm.
Colophon
I would like to thank the following people for various reasons. Especially
Mamadou Keita and Jeroen Clausman. Also Alex Arthur, Wouter van Beek,
Adriaan Blom, Huib Blom, Pierre Dartevelle, Bernhard Gardi, Reginald Groux,
Amadou Kodio, Guy van Rijn, John Tenney, Leonardo Vigorelli and Wil
Werkhoven.
Text: Jan Baptist Bedaux
Lay-out: Jan Baptist Bedaux and Jeroen Clausman
Photographs: Peter Rothengatter and Tito and Sandro Spini (no. 248.1-248.2)
Printed by Èpos Press, Zwolle
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transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, or otherwise,
without the prior permission of the author.
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