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Additional Notes Since writing the foregoing pages, I have learned quite a bit more about Ldamie, or at least, quite a bit more about his work. Through careful research, I've found over 90 objects that I can safely attribute to Ldamie based on physical characteristics, features and subject matter of his work. These judgments can be validated by comparison with two objects in the collection of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin that are illustrated in Etta Becker-Donner's book Kunst und Handwerk in NO Liberia; a work collected by Etta Becker-Donner now found in Welt Museum Wien; and the work illustrated in Barbara Johnson's Four Dan Sculptors. As said before, having an individual, recognizable artist allows us to focus on not only the tradition from which the maker arose, but how the maker bent the tradition, and adopted new forms and elements. It tells us how the maker responded to changes around him, in a place of migration and trade for countless centuries. This is the very definition of a modern artist, interacting with and changing the physical and spiritual world in which they live. Our work with Ldamie will continue. - W. Logan Fry |
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