Browse Items (21 total)

Goli masquerades are rich with social commentary pertaining to knowledge, gender, aesthetics, and the hierarchies surrounding village life. Communication comes forth through the medium of entertainment with elaborate costuming. Performance takes…

From the Guro People of Cote D’ Ivoire. Carved wood with polychrome paint of primarily purple female face with red lips, open mouth with white filed teeth, downcast open slit eyes rimmed with black, facial scarification, delicate ears with earring…

This mask was created with both inlaid white teeth and eyes, coiffure knops and a skin covered surface. The Boki people who are neighbors carve in a similar style but do not apply a skin covering.

Carved wood with dark brown vegetable pigment patina with white kaolin in the form of a rounded monkey’s face with minimal features and concave white face, round protruding eyes, elongated nose, diminutive mouth with 4 lines of scarification…

This tear drop-shaped face mask is made of carved wood with a varied dark brown patina. The hair is a wrapped fiber braid and the ears have twisted copper earrings. Attached to the chin are four brass bells and an animal tooth. The back of the mask…

One of the stylish features of many of the Chokwe masks is an exaggerated bone structure and a broad mouth exemplified by this mask. The scarification in the center of the forehead is referred to as cingelyengelye. The Chokwe have had an artistic…

There are various groups of people living in the Burkina Faso region reflected by a wide range in forms and types of masks. This example has a hand grip, beard, small mouth and four eyes and a crest. Masks are worn in ceremonies relating to farming,…

The mask is used by the Sande women’s society who live in an area known as the West Atlantic region which in the 15 century was called Guinea by European explorers. Sande society prepares young women for womanhood. When they have completed their…

At the bottom of this large carved wood mask is a round face with a handle for holding it in front of the wearer. The mask of wood, with brown and black vegetable pigment, brown indigo, and white kaolin.

This warthog’s head mask has cutouts for the dancer’s eyes just below the painted eyes. The mask is made of carved wood with a black vegetable pigment patina with white kaolin, blue indigo and red earth pigment. Some indigenous fabric remnants are…