Metal mask in "gelede" style, around 1900

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Description

copper alloy (bronze/ brass), rest.

Yoruba artist Ali Amonikoyi from Illorin (Nigeria) lived between 1907 and 1909 in Kete Krachi (now Ghana) in what was then the German colony of Togo.

There he used ancient brass-casting techniques to make mask forms resembling Yoruba “gelede” masks. These masks were placed on top of graves as memorials to the deceased, rather than being worn in dance performances.

Some of his masks are nowadays kept by the Brooklyn Museum, New York.

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Comparing literature

Zwernemann, Jürgen & Wulf Lohse,Aus Afrika, Ahnen, Geister, Götter, Hamburg 1985, p. 24 ill. 14

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