Lot 37. Magdalene Odundo, Untitled, 1990, signed on underside of foot: "Odundo 1990". Height: 13 7/8 inches (35.2 cm). Estimate 20,000 — 30,000 USD. Lot sold 34,375 USD. Photo: Sotheby's.

Provenance: Private English Collection, acquired directly from the artist
By descent to the present owner

Note: Much of Kenyan-born (1950, Nairobi) Magdalene Odundo's inspiration is drawn from the ceramic tradition of her roots on the Ugandan/Kenyan border.  In keeping with modern sculptors (such as Brancusi and Arp) she focuses on the search for perfection in form.  Odundo's ceramics are hand built, using a coiling technique.  She does not use the wheel, preferring instead to shape her vessels without its restraints of rotational symmetry.  Similarly, the surfaces on her vessels are not glazed but instead laboriously burnished, covered with slip, and burnished again.  When thoroughly dry the pots are fired in a gas kiln, first in an oxidizing atmosphere, which turns them a naturally bright red-orange.