MASK, WEST AFRICA
20th c.
Carved wood, paint
13" x 10" x 25"
Provenance: Collection of Emil Storrer, Zurich
Private Collection, Europe (acquired from the above in 1954)
Sotheby's New York, 5 May 1997, Lot 89
Allan Stone Collection, New York
Exhibition: Senufo, 1964, Museum of Primitive Art, New York (similar piece)
The Senufo peoples consist of more than thirty subgroups with many local variations of language and custom, and occupy a large area that spans the national boundaries of Côte d'Ivoire, Mali, and Burkina Faso. Zoomorphic helmet masks like the one here are worn by members of the all-male Senufo initiation association known as Poro, during funerals of important elders and in rituals connected with agriculture and initiations. These prestigious and powerful masks are visual statements that acknowledge the reality of evil while simultaneously offering a means to control it. The virulent attributes of these masks - jaws and teeth like the crocodile's, horns like the great antelope's, and tusks like the warthog's- are but a few of the elements that allude to knowledge, power, danger, and death. The most dominant motif of this helmet mask are the warthog tusks. The wild boar, when angered, is a destructive and mindless force, its erratic and violent nature the very opposite of the principles the Poro society emphasizes with regards to ideal human behavior. The dagger-like tusk is a visual metaphor of the pain and disorder that is brought about in Senufo society through supernatural and human malevolence.
References
Goldwater, Robert, Newton, Douglas, Jones, Julie, North, Tamara, Northern Art of Oceania, Africa, and the Americas from the Museum of Primitive Art, New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1969, no. 190 Collection Comparable Goldwater, Robert. Senufo Sculpture from West Africa. New York: Museum of Primitive Art, 1964, pl. 58

Numerous repaired breaks to horns. Condition reports are rendered as specialist opinion by the staff of the Auction House and/or independent consultants and not as statements of fact. We do not guarantee the content of written or verbal condition reports. The absence of a condition report does not imply that there are no condition issues with the lot. ?? ?Please call us at (609) 397-9374 or e-mail info@ragoarts.com with any questions about this lot at least 24 hours prior to auction.?