Anthropo- / zoomorphic face mask "idiok ekpo"
Richard Joseph Faletti, Chicago, USA (1997) - donated in 2006
The Art Institute of Chicago, USA, (Inv.12006.112)
Christie’s, Paris, 19 June 2013, Lot 65
Faletti (1922-2006) was a Chicago-based lawyer who became fascinated by African after after a business trip to the continent. As noted by R. Townsend, “With scholary zeal and the reasoned approach of a corporate attomey, Mr. Faletti became a respected collector of African art. He was a member of the advisory committee of Townsend’s department at the Art Institute and a trustee of museums, including the Heard Museum in Phoenix.
Description
wood, black encrusted patina, plant fibre, base
The “ekpo” society was the most important Ibibio political association. In the absence of a centralized political state, “ekpo” regulated social, political, and economic matters during precolonial times, and masquerades ensured law and order and active communication with ancestral spirits.
The masks show a contrastive aesthetics of beauty and ugliness. Artists use asymmetry and disproportion in their mask-making to recreate and comment upon the incongruities and contradictions of human existance, while symmetry and elegance convey ideas about morality and essential goodness.
The so-called “beauty beast” model served to instil fear and awe in people and to invoke the threat of force and authority necessary to maintain order.
Publications
Roberts, Mary Nooter & Roberts, Allen F., "A Sense of Wonder, African Art from the Faletti Family Collection", Phoenix Art Museum, 1997, p.103, cat. 46bAHDRC: 0124065