Magnifique masque féminin "gu", avant 1910
Roy Stacy, Washington D.C., USA
Description
wood, softly luminous black patina, narrow elongated face with a concave vaulted heart-shaped facial plane, narrow slit eyes, small lancet-shaped mouth, grooved zigzag-hairline, three old collection labels with faded inscription and handwritten collection number “4” on the backside, slighly dam., crack backside (upper rim), abrasion of paint, base.
“Gu” is always carved “uanya iri nya”, i. e. according to the image of “a beautiful woman”. She is the wife of the mask-being “zamble” and as such she must always follow her husband, i.e. appear after him in a masquerade. “Gu” masks and their cult always belong to the same families that own “zamble”. A conical basket, attached to the mask is put over the dancers back of the head, thus helping the dancer to fix the mask in front of the face. The dancer wears a netlike costume, abundant grass fibre bunches, a womans cloth mainly in blue and an antelope pelt.
Text by John Warne Monroe:
http://www.tribal-art-auktion.de/en/news-and-events/news-detail/an-iconic-guro-mask/
http://www.tribal-art-auktion.de/fr/actualites/actualites-detail/une-oeuvre-de-latelier-agba/
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AHDRC: 0060339