Masking Traditions in Africa

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

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

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

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, 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 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 went against 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; mediation 2.Rites of passage—education 3.Social control—punitive; intervention; social harmony 4.Entertainment—humor and satire.

Ancestral Veneration

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

Mask Head Yoruba (Ife) Nigeria 12 th -15 th century ( BP) Copper, 33 x 19 cm (13 in)

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

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

Maiden spirit maskers Igbo Peoples, Nigeria 20 th cent.

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

Education, Initiation and other Rites of Passage

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

Children’s masquerade Yoruba Peoples Ibadan, Nigeria 21 st century

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

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

Social Control: Punishment and Warfare

Yoruba Egungun Masquerade, mixed media, 21 st century

Mask used in executing criminals, Yoruba Peoples, Nigeria 21st cent.

Entertainment, Humor and Satire: Parodying “Otherness” & Antisocial Behavior

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

Critique and Parody of unrestrained sexual desires conceptualized in the image of a monkey, Egungun, Yoruba, Nigeria Wood, cloth 20 th century

A parody of a prostitute who prowls Around looking for victims, while stroking her teeth, Egungun, Yoruba, Nigeria Painted wood, cloth 20 th century

Parody of the town fool Egungun, Yoruba, Nigeria Painted wood, cloth 20 th century

Parodying the Colonial “Other” (Egungun) Masquerade Yoruba, Nigeria wood, animal hide, cotton, pigments 20 th century

Parodying the Police Igbo Masquerade Nigeria, 20 th century

Egungun in Acrobatic Display Yoruba Peoples, Ibadan, Nigeria 21 st century

Yoruba Egungun Masquerade, mixed media, 21 st century

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