Granary Door

• Title Granary Door
• Category Sculpture
• Medium Wood
• Medium Tribal
• Dimensions 61"h x 17.5"w x 1"d
• Description Carved wooden door
• Notes The Granary door protects the entryway to grain bins and is commonly embellished by the Dogon people. Grain, specifically millet, is the primary food source of the Dogon. The door also grants supernatural protection, which is sought through the incorporation of ancestral images*. Animal imagery covers the entire door depicting cranes, snakes, turtles, foxes, and crocodiles. There are also masks (see "Walu Mask" in collection), that depict the ancestors. In the center of this door the sun is seen. Turtles and crocodiles in Dogon mythology are familiars of the water spirit Nommo the mythic provider of humanity. The foxes represent “le pale renard” a significant Dogon mythological being who is the counterpart of Amma, the high god, is the Chthonic Lebe, who is represented as the serpent. This specific door is twice the size of an actual granary door and was made for the art market. *E.A. Van Beek Walter, et al. “Dogon Restudied: A Field Evaluation of the Work of Marcel Griaule [and Comments and Replies].” (Current Anthropology, vol. 32, no.2, 1991), 139-67. *Paul Lane, “Household Assemblages, Lifecycles and the Remembrance of Things Past among the Dogon.” (The South African Archeological Bulletin, vol. 61, no.183, 2006), 40-56.
• Artist Dogon Malian
• Credit Clyde and Annie Matters Collection
• Location Library Art Storage Oversize 1
• Accession Number 1994.0005
• Status Available Request this art work
  
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