Masking Traditions:
honoring our mothers
The Religious Landscape
Igbo Mbari House to Ala, the Earth Goddess, Adobe and wood, 20th century
Verandah Posts,
Olowe,
Wood,
Yoruba,
1910-1914
Nkisi Nkonde,
Kongo Peoples, Zaire
Wood, cord, iron, nails, feathers, pigment
Natural fibers
20th century h. 83 cm
Divination Tapper--Iroke Ifa
Ivory,
Owo, Yoruba, Nigeria
17th-18th century
Ifa divination Tray—Opon Ifa, Fon Peoples, Republic of Benin,
Wood, Late 16th- Early 17th century
The mask is …
Figure with Mask like Head,
Rock Painting, Tassili, 10,000 BP
African Art and the Modernist Engagement
Pablo Picasso,
Les Demoiselles d’Avignon
Oil on canvas, 1907
“the mask weren’t just like any pieces of sculpture…Not at all.
They were magic things…The Negro pieces were intercesseurs, mediators…
I always looked at fetishes...”
--Pablo Picasso
Pablo Picasso, Les Demoiselle D’Avignon
(detail) 1907, oil on canvas
Mbuya (sickness) mask,
Pende, Zaire, Polychrome wood,
20th century
Fang Mask,
Gabon, polychrome wood,
20th century
Pablo Picasso,
Detail of Les Demoiselle
D’Avignon, 1907,
Oil on canvas
Mask,
Republic of the Congo,
Painted wood
Late 19th century
The mask is the mediating force at that delicate intersection
between the real and the imagined; the concrete and the imperceptible;
The serious and the playful; the whimsical and the terrifying; the living and the dead
1. Ancestral veneration/worship; mediation
2. Rites of passage—education
3. Social control—punitive; intervention; social harmony
4. Entertainment—humor and satire.
Ancestor Veneration
Oba William Ayeni,
Orangun of Ila wearing the
Great Crown (Ade Nla) with beaded
Veil,
Yoruba Peoples, Nigeria
20th cent
Chiwara Masquerades in performance during the agricultural cycle,
Bamana Peoples, Mali
Crest Mask,
Chiwara,
Bamana, Mali
Wood,
20th century
Members of the Do in performance
Dossi, Burkina Faso (Upper Volta)
Wood, natural pigments, grass fibers
20th century
Bobo (Butterfly) mask,
Burkina Faso (Upper Volta),
Painted Wood, cloth,
20th century
Dje (antelope) masquerade in performance, Dabuzra, Cote D’Ivoire
Rites of Passage:
Initiation & Education
Sowei Headdress,
Gola/Vai Peoples,
Liberia and Sierra Leone,
Wood, 20th century
Sowei Headdress,
Sande society, (Gola, Vai Peoples)
Liberia Sierra Leone
Wood, pigment
20th century
Boys’ initiation, Gabon
Fire spitter mask (kponugu), Senufo, Ivory Coast
Wood, 20th century
Social Control
Gelede Headdress with two pythons attempting to swallow a tortoise
Yoruba, Nigeria, wood, pigment, 20th century
Ijele Mask at the 2nd Burial
Ceremony,
Achalla, Nigeria,
Mixed media, 20th century
Yoruba Egungun Masquerade, mixed media, 21st century
Egungun ensemble
Yoruba Peoples, Nigeria
Cloth, wood, metal
20th cent.
Egungun masquerade in
Dance motion
Yoruba Peoples, Nigeria/Benin,
20th cent.
Humor and Satire
Gelede masked performers, Yoruba Peoples, Ketu, Democratic republic of Benin
Masquerades, Yoruba, Nigeria, wood, cotton, 20th century
Parodying the Colonial “Other”
(Egungun) Masquerade
Yoruba, Nigeria
wood, animal hide, cotton, pigments
20th century
Diasporic Transformations
Egungun ensemble honoring Sango, Oyotunji, Sheldon, South Carolina,
May 26, 2014. Photograph by Bolaji Campbell.
Nick Cave
American, b. 1956
Soundsuit, 2006
Found knit sweaters, socks, drift wood, dryer lint, and paint
Helen M. Danforth Acquisition Fund 2007.11
Wole Lagunju
Marilyn Monroe and my African
Sensibilities
Acrylic on canvas
2013