Water spirit mask · Nigeria, Ijaw · ID: 3043807
not available anymore
Provenance
George Oltay, Johannesburg, South AfricaEgon Günther, Johannesburg, South Africa
Sotheby’s, New York, 18 November 2000, lot 87
Zemanek-Münster, Würzburg, 28 May 2011, lot 233
Size
H: 38 cm
H: 15.0 inch
Description
wood, pigment, inscribed “EG”, base
The Ijaw believed that they shared the rivers dominating their environment with beings they called the “Water People” and they paid tribute to these quasi-human spirits in their masquerades. A myth from the Kalabari (eastern Ijaw city-state) tells how a woman abducted by water spirits returned to teach her townspeople the plays she had seen beneath the water.
Publications
Werth, Albert Johannes, Art of Africa, African Art from South African Collections/Kuns van Afrika, Afrika-Kuns uit Suid-Afrikaanse Versamelings, 1970, p. 171AHDRC: 0095706
Exhibition
African Art, South African Collections, The Fifteenth Transvaal Academy, Johannesburg 1969 & Pretoria Art Museum, Pretoria 1970