1. Masks
from around the world

2. Alaskan Masks Yup’ik Shaman mask Asymmetrical Mask,1875,Eskimo
Yup’ik Alaskan Masks
mask 1 For many generations the Yup’ik people of Alaska have created beautifully expressive masks for their traditional dances and ceremonies. Over the long winter darkness dances and storytelling took place in the qasgiq (traditional men’s house) using these masks. This is a Nepcetaq (shaman mask) with face peering through a triangular shield, painted red, white, and black. Ten feathers are bent through holes in the upper rim and sewn in place.
Photos: Barry McWayne
mask 2Asymmetrical Mask ca Eskimo, Alaska glazed brick 45 1/2 X 65 3/4 inches painted wood, feathers Purchase: Friends Fund .
Yup’ik Shaman mask
Asymmetrical Mask,1875,Eskimo

3. Alaskan Masks Sun Mask, Gene Brabant Grouse Mask, Alfred Scow
Kwaguilth Sun Gene Brabant (Cree/Metis)
Sun Mask, Gene Brabant
Grouse Mask, Alfred Scow

4. Alaskan Masks Northwest dancer Tattoo Warrior, Terry Star
2. Eagle Human, Henry Recce, Tsimshian,Kwakiuti: Alder, Horse hair, Paint
5. Northwest dancer - Dancer Dennis Nyce representing Naxnok, or spirit beings from Native Online:
2. Tattoo Warrior, Coghlan Art photo Archive,Terry Star
Tattoo Warrior,
Terry Star
Eagle Human, Henry Recce, Alder, Horse hair, paint

5. Benin Kingdom people, Nigeria, brass
African Masks
Africa 11
Title: Chokwe people, Angola, mask (Stanley:501) Material: wood Size: h 14" Function: initiation, women's art Function Detail: Political.Reminds village of fundamental values of community Museum credit: The Stanley Collection of African Art at The University of Iowa Museum of Art Photo credit: photo by Ecco Hart
Africa 12 Title: Benin Kingdom people, Nigeria, mask (Stanley:572) Material: brass Size: h 7.25" Artist Region: Edo Traditional Name: uhunmwun Function: governance Substyle: Eastern Guinea Coast Catalogue entry: This face pendant was created for the court of the Kingdom of Benin, a highly centralized state founded in the thirteenth or fourteenth centuries in southwestern Nigeria , ruled by a divine king, or Oba, with a complex pyramidal bureaucracy of Palace Chiefs, Town Chiefs, minor palace officials, chiefly retainers, and members of the guilds that included craftsmen who produced sculpture in wood, ivory, and brass, embroidered cloths, and other court regalia. The Portuguese visited Benin in the 1470's, and Duarte Pacheco Pereira described the state: "The Kingdom of Beny [Benin] is about eighty leagues long and forty wide; it is usually at war with its neighbors and takes many captives, whom we buy at twelve or fifteen brasses bracelets each, or for copper bracelets which they prize more" (Ben Amos 1980:6,7). In 1897 a British expeditionary force attacked Benin, looted the palace, and burned it. Although the members of the brass casters' guild (Igun Eronmwon) continue to cast royal and chiefly regalia today, most of the objects from Benin in collections outside of Nigeria, including this piece, date from the long period before the British attack. This "mask" was worn by chiefs of all ranks as a pendant attached to the bunched cloth of the wrapper on the left hip as part of ceremonial attire. "In form it is related to the brass pendant masks sent to vassal rulers...and the ivory pendant mask worn by the Oba (Ben Amos 1980:75 and 1984). The head is represented wearing crown made largely of pink fire-coral beads. The decorative pattern beneath the chin represents a row of mud fish, some cast in brass as part of the whole head, and alternate fish cast in a different alloy of copper to create a color contrast when the object was polished. The strip down the nose is made of copper and the pupils of the eyes were made separately of iron set into the wax model before casting, again to create a color contrast. Museum credit: The Stanley Collection of African Art at The University of Iowa Museum of Art Photo credit: photo by Ecco Hart
Benin Kingdom people, Nigeria, brass
Chokwe mask, Wood

6. African Masks Wood buffalo Mask (left)
Title: Nuna people, Burkina Faso, mask, animal (Stanley:584) Type: mask, animal Material: wood Size: h 22.25" Artist Region: Tigan village Traditional Name: koan Function: death, initiation, spirit Function Detail: ancestral Style: Western Sudan Catalogue entry: Several groups in the area of the upper Volta River basin share the use of red, white and black geometric patterns. Among these are the southwestern Mossi, Bwa, Marka-Dafing, Samo, and various "Gurunsi" groups including the Ko, Lela and Nouna. These last three are key to understanding the sculptural styles of the area, for they are probably the originators of the style. The ancestors of the southwestern Mossi, in the area around Koudougou and Ouagadougou were Lela, Nouna and Ko. The Marka-Dafing and Samo who moved into the region bringing mask traditions with them were heavily influenced by the styles of the Ko and Nouna, and finally, the Bwa have purchased Ko an Nouna masks like this one outright from their eastern neighbors.As a result, it is virtually impossible to distinguish between the styles of many Bwa and Nouna masks. ¶ This mask, from the Nouna village of Tigan, between Koudougou and Dedougou, represents a large female Koba antelope and is called koan. As is the case throughout Upper Volta, such masks represent protective spirits from the bush, always closely associated with the spirits of ancestors, and which can take human, animal or even monstrous characteristics. Such masks can perform on several occasions throughout the dry season from October to May, but they chiefly appear at the funerals of elders and at annual village cleansing ceremonies, when malevolent supernatural spirits are chased from the village.¶ Museum credit: The Stanley Collection of African Art at The University of Iowa Museum of Art Photo credit: photo by Ecco Hart
Spirits visible
Wood buffalo Mask (left)
Dancers with a fish mask and a crocodile mask

7. African Masks Funeral head mask, wood
Art and Life in Africa Project
Africa 1 Title: Senufo people, Côte d'Ivoire, mask, animal (Stanley:158) Number: 158 Museum credit: The Stanley Collection of African Art at The University of Iowa Museum of Art
Material: wood Function: death Function Detail: funerary
Style: Western Sudan Catalogue entry: The Senufo kponyungo is an example of a type of mask which is found across the Western Sudan area and, less frequently, in other parts of Africa (cf. nos. CMS327, CMS250). Glaze describes masks with similar combinations of the most fearsome attributes of a variety of animals and translates kponyungo as “funeral head-mask” (Glaze 1976: 124). Such masks are used in commemorative funerals for graduates of the Senufo poro society, when double-membrane drums are played by a group of mask wearers near the wooden bed used in the burial (Glaze : 325). This kponyungo is intended to be worn horizontally over the head so that the wearer looks out through a large hole between the jaws. The broad, flat horns of a bush buffalo are combined with a hyena’s powerful jaws and a warthog’s tusks.
Museum credit: The Stanley Collection of African Art at The University of Iowa Museum of Art photo credit: photo by Ecco
Africa 15 Title: Yaka people, Congo (Zaire), mask (Stanley:641) Material: wood, fiber Size: h 26" Function: initiation Function Detail: initiation Catalogue entry: Large and dramatic masks like this first attracted the attention of collectors and students of African art to the Yaka. The most numerousYaka mask types are those intended to be worn by adolescents and their tutors and exhibited to the public in dance spectacles celebrating the closing of the ordeal of circumcision known as mukanda. Within this setting the mask provides protection to the young initiate in his transition to adulthood by shielding him from possible dangers in his life. These dangers include initial contacts with women, in which case they also serve to protect the future fertility of the initiated individual. Sexuality seems to play an important role in the function of these types of masks. Kholuka masks frequently have a multi- layered construction above which rest small figures. These images encourage sexuality and procreation in human and animal models. In the case of the animal models, they play no specific role on their own, but become objects of explicit sexual meaning when the dancers sing verses that explain them (Bourgeois 1980: 5). The very typical turned-up nose, may also be a display of subtle phallicism. Renaat Devisch suggests a relationship between this nose and an elephant's trunk, which for the Yaka is a phallic symbol of procreation and in mukanda is associated with a fertility charm planted in front of the cabin in which masks are stored (1972: 155). This theory is supported by Adelman , who describes adolescent girls kidding "the boys before their initiation saying in effect that 'one does not know he has a nose until it hurts,' [refering] to their upcoming operation and suggesting that the nose may in fact serve as phallic symbol (1975:42)." The mukanda also provides entertainment when the young men travel from village to village putting on performances. Musuem credit: The Stanley Collection of African Art at The University of Iowa Museum of Art Photo credit: photo by Ecco Hart
Yaka people, Congo, Initiation Mask
Funeral head mask, wood

8. Youthful Spirit Mask, Baule peoples. Wood, pigment
African Masks
Title: Senufo people, Côte d'Ivoire, mask (Stanley:379) Material: wood Size: h 13" Function: death Function Detail: Funerary Style: Western Sudan Catalogue entry: This mask, of a type called kpelie, appeared at funerals in the village of Kassere, where it was carved before 1900 by the sculptor Kokouhoh Coulibaly (Krieg 1978). Musuem credit: The Stanley Collection of African Art at The University of Iowa Museum of Art Photo credit: photo by Ecco Hart
Youthful spirit mask. Represents a minor spirit associated with the junior rank of male dancers who perform before the more important masks appear. In keeping with its low status, this mask is simple in design. Considered a mischievous mask, the youthful dancer playfully chases young women around the village, gaoded by their songs.
Youthful Spirit Mask, Baule peoples. Wood, pigment
Funerary Mask, wood,Western Sudan

9. Pacific Masks Muai Mask, Kabriman Village, Middle Sepik (right)
Tambuan mask Papua New Guinea (left)
3. Muai Mask, Korego Village, Middle Sepik, PNG Handcraft Exports
8. Tambuan mask, Papua New Guinea, this mask may be part of a large cone-shaped wicker frame work for a dance costume called a tumbuan or baba tagwa which represents a spirit from the ear of creation. The dancers make threatening gestures and brandish spears to frighten away uninitiated boys from initiation ceremonies

10. Iroquois False Face Masks
Transformations: Masking traditions of the Americas
Iroquois mask
mask Iroquois mask, 19th century, Smallpox spirit whistler mask, wood
Iroquois false face mask
Smallpox spirit whistler mask, wood, 19th century

11. Iroquois False Face Masks
Spoon Mouth Mask Artist: Clarence Longboat 12" long, 7.25" wide,Signed by the artist Price US$250.00
Iroquois spirit mask
Spoon Mouth Mask, Clarence Longboat
False Face Mask

12. Folk dancer’s Mask decorated with fresh flowers
Indian Masks
India
India 1 - Mask of Somana Kunita, India
india flower - a folk Dancer’s Mask decorated with fresh flowers, India
Folk dancer’s Mask decorated with fresh flowers
Mask of Somana Kunita

13. Amuku Sanni Yakka, Stomach disorders
Sri Lanka Masks
srilanka 6 - Amuku sanni Yakka mask, stomach disorders, Sri Lanka
srilanka 8 - Kolam natina mask of a Nanda Gara, Sri Lanka
Kolam Natina Mask of a Nanda Gara
Amuku Sanni Yakka, Stomach disorders

14. Sri Lanka Masks Kolm Natina Mask of Yamma Raksaya, (left)
srilanka 9 - Kolm natina mask of Yamma Raksaya, Sri Lanka
SirLanka1 - Garra Yakka mask, sri Lanka, photo Mary Wickline
Kolm Natina Mask of Yamma Raksaya, (left)
Garra Yakka Mask, Sri Lanka, photo Mary Wickline (top)

15. Sri Lanka Masks Kalam Natina Mask of a Monkey
srilanka 7 - Kalam natina mask of a monkey, Sri Lanka
Kalam Natina
Mask of a Monkey

16. Japanese Masks Japanese Noh masks, by Toshizane
2. Hannya, Japanese Noh mask, artist:Toshizane, the hannya mask with its horns and sharp fangs is probably the best known fo all Noh masks. The mask expresses the fury of a woman turned demon through jealousy and anger and who revenges by attacking.
3. Obeshimi, Japanese Noh mask, by Toshizane. This is a demon mask and face of the mythical tengu. Beshimi means mouth clamped firmly shut. Thus, in spite of the obstinate expression humor and bluster are manifested
Japanese Noh masks, by Toshizane

17. Japanese Masks Japanese Noh Masks by artist Toshizane
4. Kojishi, Japanese Noh mask by Toshizane. In Noh, shishi means lion is also treated as an elfin-like being. The Ko-jishi is al gold mask,
5.Hahihima, Japanses Noh mask by Thoshizane
Japanese Noh Masks by artist Toshizane

18. Javanese Masks Indonesia Tiger Demon
© 1994, The Field Museum. Photo by James Balodimas and Julie Pitzen. Javanese. Carved from soft wood and painted in traditional patterns and colors, they are among the oldest and most beautiful Indonesian masks in the United States
Java 1Drama mask topeng of Buta Macan, a tiger demon. Used in an as- yet unidentified wayang topeng dance drama. Central Java, Indonesia, ca A.D
java 2 Drama mask topeng of Cakil, a Raksasa (= demon). Probably used in a wayang topeng dance drama based on the Mahabharata, an epic story originally from India. West Java, Indonesia, ca A.D.
Tiger Demon

19. Javanese Mask Drama Mask
Carved from soft wood and painted in traditional patterns and colors

20. Tibetan Masks Gompo Masks, wood and paint
Tibet - Indigo Arts Gallery
Tibet02 Gompo Mask (#tbm02) Tibet, late 20th cent. Wood, water-based paints (7 1/2"h. x 8 3/4" x 4" d.),$125 Tibet01Gompo Mask (#tbm01)Tibet, early 20th cent.Wood, oil paint(14" h. x 9" w. x 7" d.)$325 gallery_asianart_tibetmsk1.html
Chichester, Inc
Iroquois False Face Masks
Spoon Mouth Mask
. Artist: Clarence Longboat 12" long, 7.25" wide,Signed by the artist Price US$250.00
Protruding Tongue Mask Artist: John Elliott " long, 6.75" wide Price US$250.00
XL Corn Husk Mask The mask in the two pictures above is an extremely rare mask that I believe was made by a Seneca man from Akwasasne. I purchased this mask at the Kahnawake reservation in Quebec from a reputable Mohawk dealer. There are very few of these jumbo masks made anymore. This one is hanging on my wall at home. The mask is not signed. In the picture to the left, the mask appears to be somewhat crossed-eyed. This is easily fixed by placing an empty Coke can behind the eyes as in the picture above.
28" long, 17" wide, (39" x 24" with hair) Price: US$5,000.00
© 1994, The Field Museum. Photo by James Balodimas and Julie Pitzen.
Javanese Mask Collection
The examples shown here form part of a group of 80 such masks in the collection of The Field Museum in Chicago. Carved from soft wood and painted in traditional patterns and colors, they are among the oldest and most beautiful Indonesian masks in the United States. .
Java 1Drama mask topeng of Buta Macan, a tiger demon. Used in an as- yet unidentified wayang topeng dance drama. Central Java, Indonesia, ca A.D
java 2 Drama mask topeng of Cakil, a Raksasa (= demon). Probably used in a wayang topeng dance drama based on the Mahabharata, an epic story originally from India. West Java, Indonesia, ca A.D.
Masks, article, By George Ulrich 1996
mask-1
Tatanua is a visual metaphor for maile power and aggressiveness among the New Irelanders of Melanesia
mask-2
The Diablada masquerade is performed by the Aymara people of Bolivia on important festival occasions such as All Saint's
Gompo Masks, wood and paint

21. Carnival Masks of Puerto Rico Paper-mache masks
Carnivals are of ancient origin and virtually all peoples in all eras have organized carnivals to mark or celebrate different events. Carnivals can be magical, political, satirical, or purely entertaining; some even poke fun at death. In much of Puerto Rico and other parts of the world with a strong Roman Catholic presence, Carnaval has a special meaning. It refers to the last days before the beginning of Lent. In Puerto Rico, Carnaval begins on February 2 and lasts until Ash Wednesday, which is forty days before Easter.
In many carnivals, masks are key ingredients of the public spectacle. Some elements of carnival in Ponce, including the use of papier-maché masks, probably came to the island from Spain. Other customs may have come from African and Native American traditions
Paper-mache masks

22. Carnival Masks of
Puerto Rico
"Vejigante" Mask Puerto Rico ca 1993

23. Bolivia Masquerade Mask, Aymara people, Bolivia
The Diablada masquerade is performed by the Aymara people of Bolivia on important festival of occasions such all All Saint’s
Masquerade Mask, Aymara people, Bolivia

24. Greek Paracas Mask from mummy bundle. 3-1 BCE, Greece
Happy Face, Actor’s mask, BCE, Hellenistic

25. Modern Masks Gourds Mask, Silvio Rebello
Vejigante mask, Reinaldo Rodriguez, Coconuts, ramilla sticks, Puerto Rico
Gourds Mask, Silvio Rebello

26. Modern Masks Masks, Sarajane Helm
Star Wars, Jar Jar Binks, TNC Universe

27. Modern Masks Shaman mask in Gold, Green, and Brown. Wendy Ellertson
Queen Snively, Alyssa Ravenwood

29. Credits Created by Jerilynn Packer Sources from:
Alaskan masks
A Collector’s Vision of Puerto Rico
Artic Studies Center, Yipik Masks
Art and Life in Africa Project
What Masks Reveal
Faces of The Spirits
Transformations: Masking Traditions of the Americas
Another Face – Masks around the World
Tibet – Indigo Arts Gallery
Chichester, Inc – Iroquois False Face Masks
The Field Museum – Javanese Mask Collection
Masks, article by George Ulrich
Faces of the Spirits
Masks
Coghlan Art photo Archive
ArtsEdNet Celebration put your best face forward