Aggressive masks were believed to be "sent by death" to wage psychological and supernatural warfare against dangerous bush spirits. No single creature serves as a model, as seen in this head, which combines wide open jaws with antelope horns. In some regions, masks of this type have been seen spitting fire to create showers of sparks in dramatic nighttime performances.
Wood, pigment, brass
24 x 13 3/4 x 11 in. (60.9 x 34.9 x 27.9 cm)
Gift of Katherine White and the Boeing Company
81.17.265
Provenance: [Stolper Galleries, New York]; purchased from gallery by Katherine White (1929-1980), Seattle, Washington, 1962; bequeathed to Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, Washington, 1981
Not currently on view
Resources
Exhibition HistoryCleveland, Ohio, Cleveland Museum of Art, African Tribal Images: The Katherine White Reswick Collection, July 10 - Sept. 1, 1968 (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, University of Pennsylvania Museum, Oct. 10 - Dec. 1, 1968). Text by William Fagg. Cat. no. 19 (as Helmet Mask).
Los Angeles, California, Frederick S. Wight Art Gallery, University of California, African Art in Motion: Icon and Act, Jan. 20 - Mar. 17, 1974 (Washington, D.C., National Gallery of Art, May 5 - Sept. 22, 1974). Text by Robert Farris Thompson. No cat. no., p. 150, reproduced fig. K-10 (as mask).
Seattle Art Museum respectfully acknowledges that we are on Indigenous land, the traditional territories of the Coast Salish people. We honor our ongoing connection to these communities past, present, and future.
