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Walter
Logan Fry collected six Ldamie figures in Liberia, during
the period 1934-35. His son, William Logan Fry, has
collected three more. The first of the new acquisitions,
Figure 009001, was purchased in February 2008 from Swiss art
collector, Paolo Morigi, after it failed to sell at a
Sotheby's Paris auction on December 6, 2005. In
personal correspondence, Mr. Morigi said he had acquired it
in situ in Nimba County, Liberia in 1962. It
depicts two acrobats, a father and son. The second, Figure
009002, was purchased at a Sotheby's NYC sale on May 13,
2011. It depicts a mother and child, and was originally
collected by Walter Wilson, a Firestone plantation employee,
before 1930. The third, figure 009003, was purchased
on July 28, 2023, after it failed to sell at the auction of
Nov 12, 2022, Auctionhouse Zemanek,
Münster, Germany. It depicts an elephant, with its tusks
pointed up.
These figures are placed next to photographs taken by Walter Logan Fry in Liberia, to show how Ldamie was able to capture in brass the same subjects as my father captured on film.
More than six dozen comparable works by Ldamie, in museums of every nature around the world, documented in the comparative galleries, can be viewed by clicking on the link below, beginning
with "Ldamie Group A" (click on the following link):
Ldamie Group A
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Figure 007001
Artist: Ldamie; Dan People / Liberia;
female figure winnowing rice; collected
1934-1935 by Walter Logan Fry; brass
(copper alloy); 7 1/2 in. (19 cm).
collection of William Logan Fry.
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Figure 007002
Artist: Ldamie; Dan People / Liberia;
female figure carrying water; collected
1934-1935 by Walter Logan Fry; brass
(copper alloy); 8 11/16 in. (22 cm).
collection of William Logan Fry.
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As you walk down the streets of Akron, Ohio or Washington, D.C., you won't see women carrying pots and packages on their heads. It was a common sight in Liberia at the time. They didn't have shopping carts and automobiles.
The second figure in this gallery, and first picture to the right, shows a figure that was one of Ldamie's frequent subjects, a woman carrying a pot on her head.
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Photograph by Walter Logan Fry
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Figure 007003
Artist: Ldamie; Dan People / Liberia;
female figure with machete; collected
1934-1935 by Walter Logan Fry; brass
(copper alloy); 8 in. (20.2 cm).
collection of William Logan Fry.
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Notice the leopard tooth necklace on one of the wives
in the photograph to the right. Then compare to the figure to the right (Figure 007004).
Of all the figures I've examined, now well over 150 in number, only Ldamie depicted women
wearing a leopard tooth necklace.
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Photograph by Walter Logan Fry
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Figure 007004
Artist: Ldamie; Dan People / Liberia;
female figure with leopard tooth
necklace; collected 1934-1935 by
Walter Logan Fry; brass (copper alloy);
7 1/2 in. (19.1 cm). collection of
William Logan Fry.
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Also notice the hairstyling of that same figure
(Figure 007004), and compare it to the hair styling
of the net fisher, positioned on the left side of the photograph,
seen immediately to the right.
Ldamie incorporated the clothing,
adornment and hair styling of his people into his sculpture.
This is one of the defining elements of his work; and when
such features are seen in an as of yet unattributed sculpture,
it is one indicia that it is the work of Ldamie.
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Photograph by Walter Logan Fry
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A mother carrying a baby on her back was one of the frequent themes in Ldamie's work. Compare the figure to the right, with father's photographs of market and street scenes, one on the right and another further to the left (showing a mother carrying a pot on her head). If you look at the photographs closely, you will see mothers carrying babies on their backs.
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Figure 009002
Artist: Ldamie; Dan People / Liberia;
female figure carrying child; collected
1926-30 by Walter Wilson; brass (copper alloy);
7 1/4 in. (18.4 cm); collection of
William Logan Fry.
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Photograph by Walter Logan Fry
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Figure 007005
Artist: Ldamie; Dan People / Liberia;
male figure with cane; collected
1934-1935 by Walter Logan Fry;
brass (copper alloy); 7 9/16 in.
(19.1 cm). collection of
William Logan Fry.
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Figure 009001
Artist: Ldamie; Dan People / Liberia;
acrobats; collected in 1962 by
Paolo Morigi; brass (copper alloy);
11 in. (28.5 cm). Collection of
William Logan Fry
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Father
collected the elephant tail whisk to the right. It was a
prestige item for chiefs and persons of authority. Elephant hooves were
also used for jewelry, and four examples can been see in the second
Adornment Gallery Ldamie
cast at least two elephant sculptures, one in the Fry collection, Figure 009003,
seen to the right;
and the second in the collection of the Fine Arts
Museums of San Francisco. That object can be viewed in the
comparative galleries, as well as in Barbara Johnson's
exhibition catalog: Four Dan Sculptors: Continuity and
Change.
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Liberia, early 20th century
elephant tail, leather, braided raffia;
18 in / 21.5 in incl. strap (45.7 x 54.6 cm)
private collection of
Walter Logan Fry
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Figure 009003
Artist: Ldamie; Dan People / Liberia;
elephant; collected early 2000s by
Dr. Christopher Steiner; brass (copper
alloy); 3 1/2 in. (9 cm); collection of
William Logan Fry
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Figure 007006
Artist: Ldamie; Dan People / Liberia;
male figure with slit drum; collected
1934-1935 by Walter Logan Fry; brass
(copper alloy); 10 11/16 in. (27.1 cm).
collection of William Logan Fry.
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Notice the following photograph from a page of The Akron Beacon Journal, Akron, Ohio, December 27, 1942. which
father kept among his own photographs.
Compare it to Ldamie's Fanga dancer, seen to the left and right. In the Beacon journal photograph, we can't tell if any are
holding a slit drum, since all are facing away from the
camera. All are clothed of course, while, as we have noted, Ldamie abstracted his figures, most often portraying them as nudes.
Ldamie's figure here is more fully dressed, which I believe is his way of showing a higher level of respect; just as the women
wearing the leopard tooth necklace were always more fully clothed.
Now compare the photograph with the back view of
Ldamie's Fanga dancer seen to the right. The portrayal of the back piece is a very close to actual garment.
I view this
work as Ldamie's masterpiece. It is both masterfully crafted, and a unique object among his entire body of work. While I have
located nearly 100 of his sculptures, shown in these galleries, I have found nothing that compares, although Figure 007004,
"Woman with a Leopard Tooth Necklace" (further to the left in this gallery, which father also collected), makes a nice companion
piece.
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Photograph by The Akron Beacon Journal
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Figure 007006
Artist: Ldamie; Dan People / Liberia;
male figure with slit drum; collected
1934-1935 by Walter Logan Fry; brass
(copper alloy); 10 11/16 in. (27.1 cm).
collection of William Logan Fry.
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