A large sculpture of Borousson Pale

A large sculpture of Borousson Pale, the uncle of Tyohepthe Pale, a similar sculpture of this size, but with a different surface is published in the Katsouros Monographoe, Katsouros, Tyohepte Pale, les Oeuvre d'un homme, par JuliaenBosc, page 84.

"The enclosed photos is a sculptures of G´Borousson Palé. This is a very important discovery in Lobi fieldwork, about G´Borousson and his relative Tyohepthe. Stylistic anylisis bears out what Palinfoté Palé says. There is a very clear and defined body of work that has a completely different personality to Tyohepthe , strangely ,now it is difficult to imagine that these works could be attributed to Tyohepthe even though the two carvers worked closely together.

In big Irish Catholic families where there is a considerable age difference bettween the oldest and youngest child and the youngest child takes a wife late there are situations where uncles can be younger than nephews,as with G´ Borousson and his older nephew Tyohèpté.

I believe as I said a long time ago that this body of work (now G´Borousson Palé) is very high quality is distinct enough to consider him a carving master because it is difficult to Know who was influencing or learning from who, G´Borousson Palé ,or Tyohèpthé Palé.

The big problem for me is Identifying the works of Sihinté Pale and Tiadonné Palé ,we have the photos of Julian Bosc to help for Sihinté sculptures. The photo that you sent of a Sihinte sculpture is very close to the sculptures that so far we have associated with Tiadone . This is fantastic work and I hope you have the recognition you deserve......" PH

I could send you for stylistical analysis only three photos by e-mail, because it´s not so easy to send a bigger number of picturess from Segou, Mali, to Gubbio, Italy, because the Internet connection in Africa isn´t so strong like in Europe: One photo from the face of a Sihinté sculpture and two from a Tiadonné Palé sculpture. Now both sculptures are uploaded with many detail-photos at our Berlin Server and you can see much more for a comparison of both carvers.

I am sure your little identifying problem in relation of these two carvers will be over. WJ

I get the point ,yes in these photos I can see big differences ,as always the eye has to get accustomed . The impressive Sihinte pale sculpture has a low ridge at the top of the head similar to one of the sculptures now in Quai Branly ,there is a considerable difference in quality here close up between the two sculptures. you can see the features are more integrated and have a strength of character in Sihinté. In the Tiadonné head the features retain their geometric forms and sit upon the surface in a static way , I do not have to mention the patina quality you can see the difference yourself....PH



I know only two sculptures of Tiadonné Palé. On this base I realy don´t like to much comparisons with Sihinté Palé. It is possible, we underestimate this carver. There is a strong relationship between all carvers from the B´Bakpoulona region and this includes also "the carver of Houlbera" (I don´t know his name, he passed away highaged two years ago), who is - in my opion - much more close to Sihinté than Tiadonné.

In the light of these discoveries maybe it is time to question some of the attributions of even Piet Meyer in Kunst und Religion der Lobi and repeated by the current owners of the sculptures in the Katsouros/Bosc publication "Tyohepthe" 2009 . page 78. Numbers 39 and 41 of the Herkenhoff collection are possibly not by Tyohepthe ,but on your evidence by his father I have considerable doubts about sculpture number 34 too....PH.

I agree with your doubts and it´s a pitty that this booklet didn´t publish the whole interview Julien Bosc made with Thyohèpté at G´Bakpoulona. There are parts of this interview, which came to an important poit, but than there is this interruption by the editor and you don´t know, what Tyohèpté said with his following words. Tyohèpté s comparison between his and his fathers work is only one example for such an "interruption", which isn´t understandable in the time of the Internet, where information can be spread without any economic limitations. WJ

Height: 81 cm
Weight: 4 kg