Mourning face mask "okuyi" · Gabon, Punu · ID: 3033380
Fily Keita, Los Angeles, USA
Description
wood, white, black and red pigment, the whole face covered with white earth “pemba”, narrow slit eyes, elaborate coiffure in four lobes, scarification marks, slightly dam., fine cracks, on base;
belonging to the so-called “white-faced masks of the Okuyi”. These masks represented female entities from the spirit world, fantastical beings who intervened in the villages on important collective occasions: bereavements, palavers, the birth of twins, times of epidemic, hunts for malevolent sorcerers, and so on. Masked dancers standing on stilts would confront each other in “jousts”. Each dancer would be assisted by a team, whose purpose was to help him perform his competition with an acrobatic feat. The best dancer in the eyes of public would win the match.
The object Mourning face mask “okuyi” with the object ID 3033380 was last part of the auction 70th tribal art auction at September 8, 2012 on Zemanek-Münster Auction house. The object with the lot number 365 achieved a sales price of EUR 7,340.
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Comparing literature
Page, Donna, Artists and Patrons in Traditional African Cultures, New York 2005
Publications
Bravmann, Rene, The Poetry of Form, Seattle 1982: 64