An ancient and beautiful commemorative funeral bust called mma, featuring idealized features in keeping with the beauty canons of the Anyi and Akan cultures: long ringed neck, prominent coffee-bean eyes, slightly upturned nose, thin lips, keloid scars marking the birth of the cheekbones and temples and a high, detailed headdress attesting to a high social rank. The Blanpain bust, with its skilfully-architected hairstyle, elongated, incised eyes, prophylactic scarring known as "fever marks" and brilliant black slip, is one of the highest achievements of this style. This masterful work of art occupied a special place in the collection of surrealist Tristan Tzara. Anyi-Sanwi, Krinjabo region, Ivory Coast Terracotta, numerous archival labels, small chip to left eye, beautiful old glazed patina. H. 29 cm Provenance : French private collection, 1927 Tristan Tzara Collection, Paris Christophe Tzara Collection, Paris, 1988 Arnold J. & Lucille Alderman Collection, New Haven, Connecticut, 1989-2002 Collection Marc Blanpain, Brussels, acquired 2002 Publications and exhibitions : Flagel-Portier, Paris, Art Primitif, May 18-20, 1927, no. 349 Marquetty, Exposition d'Art Africain et d'Art Océanien, 1930, p. 33, Paris, Galerie du théâtre Pigalle, February 28-April 1, 1930 Sweeney, African Negro Art, 1935, p. 395, New York, Museum of Modern Art, African Negro Art, March 18-May 19, 1935, Manchester, Currier Museum of Art, June 10-July 8, 1935; San Francisco, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, July 23-September 2, 1935; Cleveland, Cleveland Museum of Art, September 28-October 27, 1935 Radin and Sweeney, African Folktales and Sculpture, 1952, p. 61 Fagg, Africa: One Hundred Tribes - One Hundred Masterpieces, 1964, p. 16, Paris, Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Pavillon de Marsan, October 28 - November 30, 1964 Fagg, Sculptures africaines. Les univers artistiques des tribus d'Afrique noire, 1965, p. 8 Sweeney, African Sculpture, 1970, p. 161 Guy Loudmer, Paris, Arts Primitifs. Collection Tristan Tzara et à divers amateurs, November 24, 1988, no. 208 Sotheby's, New York, Important Tribal Art, May 8 1989, no. 38 Sotheby's, New York, Arts of Africa, Oceania & The Americas, May 17 2002, no. 63 Grunne (de), Dreams of Beauty: African Sculptures from the Blanpain Collection, 2005, p. 28, Luxembourg, Banque Générale du Luxembourg, October 25 - December 2, 2005 Hourdé et Rolland, Galerie Pigalle: Africa, Oceania. 1930. Une exposition mythique, 2018, p. 185, 30 Giquello, Paris, Blanpain Collection, December 6, 2024, no. 15