Mask "gu" with coiffure from amulet pouches, before 1920 · Côte d'Ivoire, Guro · ID: 3042408
Monique & Jean-Paul Barbier-Mueller, Geneva, Switzerland (1979)
Galerie Kornfeld, Bern, 23 June 1979, lot 103
Merton Simpson, New York, USA
William J. (Bill) Moore, Los Angeles, USA
Description
wood, reddish brown patina, black paint, extremely narrow elongated face with accentuated ears and elaborate coiffure, eyebrows in pokerwork, raised tattoo on the forehead, slightly dam., vertical crack on both face halves (rep. in parts), abrasion of paint;
stylistically present mask can be dated before 1920. It was part of the Josef Mueller Collection already before 1942. He acquired the majority of his artifacts in Paris before World War II.
“Gu” is always carved according to the image of “a beautiful woman” - “uanya iri nya”. Although she is always danced by men. Together with “zauli” - a grotesque animal mask with long horns - and “zamble” whose face reminds of a leopard or a crocodile - “gu” forms one mask family. “Gu” is considered to be “zambles” wife. During the masquerade she appears after the two zoomorphic masks “zaule” and “zamble”, accompanied by flutes, moving slowly and charming, singing songs in honour of “zamble”.
The object Mask “gu” with coiffure from amulet pouches, before 1920 with the object ID 3042408 was last part of the auction 86th Tribal Art Auction at May 27, 2017 on Zemanek-Münster Auction house and had the lot number 250.
You can find more Masks and other popular object types on our related topic pages. You may also be interested in our page on African art.
Publications
AHDRC: 0142251