Beautiful face mask, around 1910/20
Josef Wiedemann, Munich, Germany (before 1945)
Description
wood, brown patina, black paint, kaolin, red pigment, roundish face with delicate carved facial features, coiffure arranged in three semicircles (to the Yaure connected with power and prosperity), crowned with a circle of cow horns and pecking bird (presumably depicting a cattle egret), old collection label “Baule 2729”, slightly dam. (mouth), fine crack, insect caused missing parts (inner rim of the left eye, left horn, mask rim, backside), abrasion of paint;
this mask can be regarded as work of the Yaure master Kouakou Dili or his workshop, which can be attributed chronologically and stylistically to a series of horned masks published by Himmelheber in “Negerkünstler” in 1935. Consider the well-balanced rounded facial shape, the striking form of the eyes, the small whitened ears, or the mouth, the form of which, according to the artist, is to express the state of mind of the face mask.
Although African art had been known and popular in Europe since 1905, the research of African sculptors first began with this groundbreaking work by Himmelheber. Kouakou Dili (born around 1890) is the first sculptor of the Ivory Coast, of whom we know what he looked like and how his masks were produced.
The Yaure have two (difficult to differentiate) mask groups, “je” and “lo”, with which the supernatural powers “yu” can supposedly influence the well-being of the people, but they can also harm them as well. As symbols of the “yu”, the masks are considered to be particularly dangerous, so that it is strictly forbidden for women to see them. The masks are only performed at burial ceremonies and by means of their dance they restore the social balance and guide the dead into the world of the ancestors.
Comparing literature
Himmelheber, Hans, Negerkünstler, Stuttgart 1935, p. 73, pl. XII, ill. 28 Fischer, Eberhard & Lorenz Homberger, Afrikanische Meister, Kunst der Elfenbeinküste, Zürich 2014, p. 15 f. Hahner-Herzog, Iris, Das Zweite Gesicht, Genf, München, New York 1997, ill. 38 f. Barbier, Jean Paul (ed.), Art of Côte d' Ivoire, Vol II, Genève 1993, p. 108 ff.Publications
AHDRC: 0138846