Murid Methodology: Moustapha Dimé's Figurative Sculptures

In 1986 sculptor Moustapha Dimé returned to Dakar after a year-long religious retreat in the Murid holy city of Touba, Senegal. He had abstained from carving for an entire year, the only such hiatus in his incredibly productive career. He announced his return to the art world that December in a joint exhibition with friend and painter Abdoulaye Ndoye (Senegal, b. 1951) at the National Gallery of Senegal. Entitled Rupture: Peinture Sculpture, the exhibition featured twenty-six sculptures by Dimé, a few of which had been completed prior to his religious sojourn, but most achieved upon his return. The accompanying brochure depicts three of them: le Deuil, la Souffrance, and le Penseur, all in wood and all depicting the human form in a lightly abstracted fashion (Figs. 1a–d). Le Deuil is a group of smoothly carved cylindrical figures clustered together with their heads bowed, while...