Deformation mask "idiok ekpo" ·  Nigeria, Ibibio · ID: 3024308

Description

wood, blackened, red and white pigment, protruding brows with eyeballs of differering size, displaced mouth with clefted upper lips,bulging cheeks with abscesses, crack (chin zone), minor missing parts backside at the rim;
illness or deformation masks were danced at masquerades of the “ekpo” society; they mostly depict people suffering of untreated leprosy, gangosa, syphilitic lesions, or mucosal leishmaniasis.

The object Deformation mask “idiok ekpo” with the object ID 3024308 was last part of the auction 77th tribal art auction at June 28, 2014 on Zemanek-Münster Auction house. The object with the lot number 276 achieved a sales price of EUR 700.

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Comparing literature

Wittmer, Marcilene K. & William Arnett, Three Rivers of Nigeria, Atlanta 1978, p. 78 ff.