2. Masking Traditions in Africa

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

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

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

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

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

8. 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

9. “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

10. 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.

11. Ancestral Veneration

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

13. Mask Head Yoruba (Ife) Nigeria 12 th -15 th century (700-500 BP) Copper, 33 x 19 cm (13 in)

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

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

16. Crest Mask, Chiwara, Bamana, Mali Wood, 20 th century

17. 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

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

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

20. Maiden spirit maskers Igbo Peoples, Nigeria 20 th cent.

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

22. Education, Initiation and other Rites of Passage

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

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

25. Boys’ initiation, Gabon

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

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

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

29. Social Control: Punishment and Warfare

30. Yoruba Egungun Masquerade, mixed media, 21 st century

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

38. Parodying the Police Igbo Masquerade Nigeria, 20 th century

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

40. Yoruba Egungun Masquerade, mixed media, 21 st century

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