Mourning face mask "okuyi" ·  Gabon, Punu/Lumbo · ID: 3035373

Description

wood, corresponding with the Punu ideas of beauty: half-closed eyes, finely arched eyelids, a narrow nose, a mouth with red lips, hairdo with central crest and flat lobes aside, characteristic whitened facial plane (extremely abraded), forehead tattoo, slightly dam. (eyes, chin, lips), missing parts (head, lobes, chin right hand side), crack, rep. (breakage at the chin), socle;
belonging to the so-called “white-faced masks from the Ogue”. 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 mask served as motif for the photo “Solarisation au masque Punu” of the french photographer Maurice Tabard, which is dated from 1936. For a copy of the photo see the catalogue KAOS, 2007, p. 38.

L’objet Mourning face mask “okuyi” avec l’ID d’objet 3035373 a fait partie de la dernière vente aux enchères 74th tribal art auction dans 7 septembre 2013 le Zemanek-Münster Hôtel des ventes. L’objet portant le numéro de lot 303 a atteint un prix de vente de 25 000 €.

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Littérature comparée

Fagaly, William, Ancestors of Congo Square, New Orleans 2011, p. 276 ff.