Lobi Abstract Seated Figure

Reduce a person to a few bold gestures and see what survives. A Lobi smith did exactly that.

Burkina Faso, early 20th century. Forged iron, eight inches tall, made for shrines, where such figures worked as protective and spiritual objects. A flat, upright body. Two arms looped outward in matching heart-shaped curves. A hooked form above for the head. The legs fold below into a coiled ring that serves as a base. The iron is warm rust-brown, and the hammer marks show.

Modernists would claim it as their own. The Lobi got there first.