Masking Traditions: honoring our mothers
The Religious Landscape
Igbo Mbari House to Ala, the Earth Goddess, Adobe and wood, 20 th century
Verandah Posts, Olowe, Wood, Yoruba,
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 17 th -18 th century
Ifa divination Tray—Opon Ifa, Fon Peoples, Republic of Benin, Wood, Late 16 th - Early 17 th 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, 20 th century
Fang Mask, Gabon, polychrome wood, 20 th century Mask, Republic of the Congo, Painted wood Late 19 th century Pablo Picasso, Detail of Les Demoiselle D’Avignon, 1907, Oil on canvas
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 20 th cent
Chiwara Masquerades in performance during the agricultural cycle, Bamana Peoples, Mali
Crest Mask, Chiwara, Bamana, Mali Wood, 20 th century
Bobo (Butterfly) mask, Burkina Faso (Upper Volta), Painted Wood, cloth, 20 th century Members of the Do in performance Dossi, Burkina Faso (Upper Volta) Wood, natural pigments, grass fibers 20 th 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, 20 th century
Sowei Headdress, Sande society, (Gola, Vai Peoples) Liberia Sierra Leone Wood, pigment 20 th century
Boys’ initiation, Gabon
Fire spitter mask (kponugu), Senufo, Ivory Coast Wood, 20 th century
Social Control
Gelede Headdress with two pythons attempting to swallow a tortoise Yoruba, Nigeria, wood, pigment, 20 th century
Ijele Mask at the 2 nd Burial Ceremony, Achalla, Nigeria, Mixed media, 20 th century
Yoruba Egungun Masquerade, mixed media, 21 st century
Egungun ensemble Yoruba Peoples, Nigeria Cloth, wood, metal 20 th cent.
Egungun masquerade in Dance motion Yoruba Peoples, Nigeria/Benin, 20 th cent.
Humor and Satire
Gelede masked performers, Yoruba Peoples, Ketu, Democratic republic of Benin
Masquerades, Yoruba, Nigeria, wood, cotton, 20 th century
Parodying the Colonial “Other” (Egungun) Masquerade Yoruba, Nigeria wood, animal hide, cotton, pigments 20 th century
Diasporic Transformations
Egungun ensemble honoring Sango, Oyotunji, Sheldon, South Carolina, May 26, Photograph by Bolaji Campbell.
Nick Cave American, b Soundsuit, 2006 Found knit sweaters, socks, drift wood, dryer lint, and paint Helen M. Danforth Acquisition Fund
Wole Lagunju Marilyn Monroe and my African Sensibilities Acrylic on canvas 2013