Transcript Masking Traditions : Honoring our Mothers
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
Edouard 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 Pablo Picasso, Detail of Les Demoiselle D’Avignon, 1907, Oil on canvas Mask, Republic of the Congo, Painted wood Late 19 th century
“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 (700-500 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
Members of the Do in performance Dossi, Burkina Faso (Upper Volta) Wood, natural pigments, grass fibers 20 th century Bobo (Butterfly) mask, Burkina Faso (Upper Volta), Painted Wood, cloth, 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 Ceremony, Achalla, Nigeria, Mixed media, 20 th Burial 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
Mask used in executing criminals, Yoruba Peoples, Nigeria 19 th /20 th cent
Yoruba Egungun Masquerade, mixed media, 21 st century
Entertainment, Humor and Satire:
Parodying “Otherness” & Antisocial Behavior
Egungun masquerade costume, Yoruba Peoples, Nigeria Cloth, metal, wood 20 th cent
Egungun ensemble Yoruba Peoples, Nigeria Cloth, wood, metal 20 th cent.
Egungun masquerade in Dance motion Yoruba Peoples, Nigeria/Benin, 20 th cent.
Gelede masked performers, Yoruba Peoples, Ketu, Democratic republic of Benin
Masquerades, Yoruba, Nigeria, wood, cotton, 20 th century
Critique of restrained 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. 1956 Soundsuit, 2006 Found knit sweaters, socks, drift wood, dryer lint, and paint Helen M. Danforth Acquisition Fund 2007.11