Anthropomorphic mask · Papua New Guinea - Ramu River · ID: 3044979
Fily Keita, Los Angeles, USA
Description
wood, red pigment/ encrusted, base
According to attached old label the mask was collected on Manam Island, Waya Village from a “tambaran” ritual house.
Masks and slit-gong drums from the Lower Ramu are traded along the coast as far as the Murik Lakes and out to Manam Island and the Schouten Islands in the Bismarck Sea.
This is, so to speak, an “empty mask” that can not be assigned to a specific spirit, but animated ad hoc for the mask dances with the spirit that you want to perform.
The object Anthropomorphic mask with the object ID 3044979 was last part of the auction 90.I Tribal Art and 90.II Contemporary Native American Art at November 17, 2018 on Zemanek-Münster Auction house. The object with the lot number 66 achieved a sales price of EUR 1,500.
You can find more Masks and other popular object types on our related topic pages. You may also be interested in our page on Oceanian art.
Comparing literature
Peltier, Philippe et.al., Tanz der Ahnen, Zürich 2015, p. 252, Kat.121