Sacred and Secular Imagery: The Masking Tradition

Pablo Picasso, Les Demoiselles d’Avignon Oil on canvas, 1907

Pablo Picasso, Les Demoiselle D’Avignon (detail) 1907, oil on canvas Mbuya (sickness) mask, Pende, Zaire, Polychrome wood, 20th century

Visual metaphors

Nkisi Nkonde, Kongo Peoples, Zaire Wood, cord, iron, nails, feathers, pigment Natural fibers 20th century h. 83 cm

Fante Linguists with staffs, Fante Region Ghana

Stool with mudfish motif, bronze, Benin, Nigeria, Late Period Metaphor of transformation, survival and continuity

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 Ancestral veneration/worship; mediation Rites of passage—education Social control—punitive; intervention; social harmony Entertainment—humor and satire.

Ancestor Veneration

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

Oba William Ayeni, Orangun of Ila wearing the Great Crown (Ade Nla) with beaded Veil, Yoruba Peoples, Nigeria 20th cent

Kuba King in full ceremonial Regalia surrounded by Members of his family, BaKuba, Congo/ Zaire Early 20th cent.

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

Education

Sowei Headdress, Sande society, (Gola, Vai Peoples) Liberia Sierra Leone Wood, pigment 20th century

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

Entertainment

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