Woman’s Apron (cache-sexe) Bana Guili (Fali) people, Northern Cameroon 20th century Glass beads and cowries strung on cotton 20.5 x 8 ins (52 x 20 cm) Bana women from Guili, in the remote Mandara mountains of northern Cameroon, are perhaps the most improvisational of African bead artists. Their marriage and puberty aprons display an exuberant sense of color and a free spirited, intuitive approach to pattern, line, shape, and color sequence, even when deploying conventional geometric designs such as squares and triangles, and no more so than in scintillating “pointillist” compositions that pulse with light and energy. They are masters of color abstraction. SOLD
