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Ldamie created a comprehensive body of work, which can be found in at least 22 public museums in Africa, Europe and the United States, but the first 14 public museums in this gallery fail to identity his work, although a few correctly attribute some of his work, but fail to attribute other work. Some misattribute the work to another artist altogether.
Three museums lack online collections which can even be reviewed. Moreover, the 86 objects found in private collections overwhelmingly lack any identification whatsoever.
Only the final five museums shown here correctly identifies Ldamie's work.
Examples.
Brooklyn Museum correctly attributes the objects originally collected by Walter Wilson, a Firestone Plantation employee, to Ldamie; but attributes the work collected by the Brooklyn Expedition of 1922 to Bwayen, an artist with a totally different style.
The Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology, a research unit of the University of California, Berkeley, shows an important object in its online collection, but claims it is made by a Kran maker, and fails to list Ldamie by name. A card accompanying the object clearly identifies the object as being made by Ldamie (click on the "Image" icon below the work), but that information is not included in the primary catalog information. As a result, a search
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of the museum's online, collection database, using the search term "Ldamie," returns: "No entries found."
Museum Rietberg in Züruck, Switzerland, correctly attributes at least three recently acquired objects to Ldamie, but fails to attribute at least one other.
Conclusion
It would be unusual to find a European or American artist with such a broad body of work, collected by so many major museums, whose name was so unknown.
I have undertaken to discover the work of Ldamie wherever it can be found and, without hesitation, have attributed clear examples of his work to him. Often this can be done visually without a physical examination, by studying the physical characteristics of the work, including subject matter, costume or hair style, or other salient features. A physical examination should be undertaken for others, now collected in the gallery: "Unattributed Group G".
It is hoped that Ldamie will soon receive the attention he deserves.
Note: When this gallery was created, the link to the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin returned "404" in some browsers, and the American Museum of Natural History online collection was undergoing "System Maintenance." In those instance, click on the "Image" icon for the original entries.
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Figure 001004
Blacksmith
Peabody Museum of Natural History
(Cambridge).
Object No. 32-49-50/49
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Figure 013003b
Man with Hat Carrying Spear
Attributed to Bwayen;
Brooklyn Museum;
Accession No. 22.222
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Figure 015002
Man Carrying Box
Seattle Art Museum;
No. 68.74
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Figure 002001
Female Figure with Ax
American Museum of Natural History;
No. 90.2/3385
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Figure 017002
Female Figure Carrying Water;
Staatliche Museen zu Berlin
Ident No.: | | | C 35857
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Figure 021002
Male Figure with Drum
The British Museum;
Af1954,18.1
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Figure 031001
Female Figure with Baby
Hood Museum of Art;
Dartmouth University;
Object no. 2001.51.34356
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Figure 014003
Female Figure with Baby and Dog;
Nasher Museum of Art,
Duke University
Object no. 1994.5.1
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Figure 011001
Female Figure with Staff
Indianapolis Museum of Art;
No. 1989-335.
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Figure 019002
Female Figure Carrying Water
Museum Rietberg, Zuruck;
Inv. no. 2017.24
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Figure 005001
Female Figure Winnowing Rice
National Museum of Natural
History; No. E398838.
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Figure 010001
Female Figures Pounding Rice
Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology;
Museum Number: 5-12978
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Figure 023004
Crocodile
Neprajzi Museum of Ethnology,
Budapest; No. NM 135317
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Museums that
Do Attribute Sculptural Work to Ldamie
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Figure 018002
Male Figure with Bound Hands
Welt Museum Wien,
Inv. No. 126145
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Figure 004002
Standing Female Figure
San Francisco Museum of Fine Arts
No. 1994.171.2.
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Figure 003001
Female Figure Carrying Water
Baltimore Museum of Art;
BMA 1998:447.
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Figure 006001
Female Figure with Leopard Tooth Necklace
National Museum of African Art;
No. 73-7-111.
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Figure 020001
Female Figure with Machete
Yale Art Gallery;
Accession No. 2016.119.21
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