Masking Traditions in Africa

British Marines displaying their loot after the sack of Benin, 1897

Pablo Picasso,Les Demoiselles d’AvignonOil on canvas, 1907

Edouard Manet, "The Luncheon on the Grass“, oil on canvas, 1862/1863

Pablo Picasso,Les Demoiselles d’AvignonOil on canvas, 1907

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

Mask, Republic of the Congo,Painted woodLate 19th century

Pablo Picasso,Detail of Les DemoiselleD’Avignon, 1907,Oil on canvas

“the mask weren’t just like any pieces of sculpture…Not in the least,they were magic things…these Negroes were intercessors, …

They were against everything, against unknown threatening spirits…I kept on staring at the fetishes. Then it came to me. I too was against

everything… I too felt that everything was unknown, hostile…” --Pablo Picasso

“The African masks opened a new horizon to me. They made it possible for me to make contact with Instinctive things, which inhibited feeling that wentagainst the false (Western) tradition which I hated”

--Georges Braque

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; mediation2. Rites of passage—education

3. Social control—punitive; intervention; social harmony4. Entertainment—humor and satire.

Ancestral Veneration

Figure with Mask like Head,Rock Painting, Tassili, 10,000 BP

Mask HeadYoruba (Ife) Nigeria12th-15th century (700-500 BP)Copper, 33 x 19 cm (13 in)

Oba William Ayeni,Orangun of Ila wearing the Great Crown (Ade Nla) with beadedVeil,Yoruba Peoples, Nigeria20th cent

Chiwara Masquerades in performance during the agricultural cycle,Bamana Peoples, Mali

Crest Mask,Chiwara,Bamana, MaliWood,20th century

Bobo (Butterfly) mask,Burkina Faso (Upper Volta),Painted Wood, cloth, 20th centuryMembers of the Do in performance

Dossi, Burkina Faso (Upper Volta)Wood, natural pigments, grass fibers20th century

Dje (antelope) masquerade in performance, Dabuzra, Cote D’Ivoire

Elephant masks in performance, Cameroon, cotton, beads, animal skin, feathers,1985

Maiden spirit maskersIgbo Peoples, Nigeria20th cent.

Ijele Mask at the 2nd BurialCeremony,Achalla, Nigeria,Mixed media, 20th century

Education, Initiation and other Rites of Passage

Sowei Headdress,Gola/Vai Peoples,Liberia and Sierra Leone,Wood, 20th century

Sowei Headdress,Sande society, (Gola, Vai Peoples)Liberia Sierra LeoneWood, pigment20th century

Boys’ initiation, Gabon

Children’s masqueradeYoruba PeoplesIbadan, Nigeria21st century

Fire spitter mask (kponugu), Senufo, Ivory CoastWood, 20th century

Gelede Headdress with two pythons attempting to swallow a tortoiseYoruba, Nigeria, wood, pigment, 20th century

Social Control:

Punishment and Warfare

Mask used in executing criminals,Yoruba Peoples, Nigeria19th/20th cent

Yoruba Egungun Masquerade, mixed media, 21st century

Entertainment, Humor and Satire:

Parodying “Otherness” & Antisocial Behavior

Egungun masquerade costume,Yoruba Peoples, NigeriaCloth, metal, wood20th cent

Egungun ensemble Yoruba Peoples, NigeriaCloth, wood, metal20th cent.

Egungun masquerade in Dance motionYoruba Peoples, Nigeria/Benin,20th cent.

Gelede masked performers, Yoruba Peoples, Ketu, Democratic republic of Benin

Masquerades, Yoruba, Nigeria, wood, cotton, 20th century

Critique of restrained sexual desires conceptualized in the image of a monkey,Egungun, Yoruba, NigeriaWood, cloth20th century

A parody of a prostitute who prowlsAround looking for victims, while stroking her teeth,Egungun, Yoruba, NigeriaPainted wood, cloth20th century

Parody of the town foolEgungun, Yoruba , NigeriaPainted wood, cloth20th century

Parodying the Colonial “Other”(Egungun) MasqueradeYoruba, Nigeriawood, animal hide, cotton, pigments20th century

Parodying the PoliceIgbo MasqueradeNigeria,20th century

Egungun in Acrobatic DisplayYoruba Peoples, Ibadan, Nigeria21st century

Yoruba Egungun Masquerade, mixed media, 21st century

Nick CaveAmerican, b. 1956Soundsuit, 2006Found knit sweaters, socks, drift wood, dryer lint, and paint  Helen M. Danforth Acquisition Fund  2007.11