Tyohepte Pale

Tyohepte Pale (*  1915 in Gbakpoulona ; †  2001 ) was an artist of the African Lobi ethnic group .

life and work

Tyohepte Pale was born in Gbakpoulona in what is now Burkina Faso in 1915 . He stayed in this place all his life. He took over the art of carving from his father, without having been explicitly instructed by him at first. At the age of seven he worked as the shepherd of his father's flock. Around 1925 he began to model more systematically, eventually to carve. He made figurative slingshots for his own use, then also for sale to travelers. At the age of 15 he took part in an initiation ceremony through which he became a man in the Lobi understanding. Now his father taught him the art of carving himself. By the time he was eighteen he had acquired thorough carving skills. Now he developed more and more his own, soon unmistakable style.

When his father died in the early 1960s, he began to see himself as an independent carver and artist and also as a mediator of the supernatural forces that his sculptures embody for him. In addition to the need for figures for the religious cult in the place, it was also the interest of European travelers that got him buyers of his works. Among the locals as well as the Europeans, he was nationally regarded as an expert in relation to religious questions as well as the production of specific figures. He was also recognized by the government. With the end of colonialism and increasing tourism , the demand for his works grew. Reports from ethnologists made him known internationally to a professional audience. The quality of his works was rated differently. Piet Meyer , curator at the Rietberg Museum in Zurich, which has some authentic Lobi sculptures in its collection, called him a forger. But Tyoheptes fame increased the sales value of his works, motivated other carvers to manufacture forgeries and led to the repeated theft of figures by traveling traders. Tyohepte took advantage of the modern art market while remaining rooted in tradition. He was ambivalent about his role as an artist in the western sense. He received numerous interested parties and willingly gave them information about himself and his work. In 2001 Tyohepte Pale died of old age in his hometown.

reception

In his community, Tyohepte was regarded as a gifted carver of religious figures, but also as a priest and healer. At the same time, Tyohepte Pale systematically created works for the western art market. It is thus a prime example of the art of the Lobi with their individually distinguishable carving individuals, which distinguishes the Lobi culture from many other cultures in Africa. Tyoheptes work gained worldwide fame and appreciation in a western museum through the presentation of 21 of his sculptures in the permanent exhibition of the Musée du quai Branly in Paris. Various researchers have studied Tyohepte Pale and his work. The French poet and author Julien Bosc , in particular, sought close contact with Tyohepte Pale from 1995 to 2001 and recorded key aspects of the life and work of this carver.

literature

• Julien Bosc, Floros Katsouros: Tyohepte Pale . 2009. ISBN 978-3-00027146 5
• Rainer Greschik , Nils Seethaler (preface): Lobi. West African sculptures from the Greschik collection . Edited on the occasion of the exhibition “The Discovery of the Individual” in Lutherstadt Wittenberg, 2016
• Stephan Herkenhoff, Petra Herkenhoff: carvers of the Lobi . Self-rel. 2013. ISBN 978-3-00040716-1

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Petra Schütz: Lobi-Falsifikate , accessed on June 22, 2017.