Masque à cornes " kpan " · Côte d'Ivoire, Baoulé · ID: 3053545
Sotheby’s, London, United Kingdom, 17 June 1991, lot 109
Roswitha von Bergmann, Düsseldorf, Germany
Neumeister, Munich, Germany, 11 November 2004, lot 308
Karl-Ferdinand Schädler, Munich, Germany
Neumeister, Munich, Germany, 15 October 2009, lot 1225
Philippe Ratton, Paris, France (2014)
Zemanek-Münster, Würzburg, Germany, 31 October 2015, lot 214
Arno Henseler, Munich, Germany
Description
wood, pigments, base
Works from the same workshop see AHDRC 0060403 and 0121784.
“Kpan” masks are part of the “goli” masquerade, a daylong performance that involves the entire village population and which displays four pairs of masks. They appear two by two in a fixed order: first a pair of disc-faced masks (“kple kple”), next a pair of animal helmet masks (“goli glen”), third a pair of horned face masks (“kpan pre”), and finally two human-faced masks (“kpan”). This popular ritual takes place during an important event such as the death of a notable or a major celebration. The “kpan” are the last to take part in the show, their appearance remaining exceptional: the ornamentation and colours are equally attributed to the two sexes, nothing making it possible to distinguish them clearly and their role remaining ambivalent.
Publications
Schädler, Karl-Ferdinand, Encyclopedia of African Art and Culture, Munich 2009, p. 345; Galerie Philippe Ratton, 49 sculptures de Côte d'Ivoire, p. 18
AHDRC: 0060657
Littérature comparée
Vogel, Susan Mullin, Baule, African Art - Western Eyes, New York 1997, p. 175
Exposition
Paris, Galerie Philippe Ratton, 49 sculptures de Côte d'Ivoire, June 2014