The head of a Cape buffalo has been interpreted into a series of geometric shapes. Adapting the image of a burly slow-moving animal into a masquerade, carvers capture the swirling strength of its horns, completing the costume with a suit of tufted raffia. Energetic as a charging buffalo, the masquerader is called upon to witness appeals for vigorous crop fertility and childbirth.
Wood
5 1/2 x 13 1/8 x 18 1/2 in. (14 x 33.4 x 47 cm)
Gift of Katherine White and the Boeing Company
81.17.544
Provenance: [Felix Gluckselig Antiques, New York]; purchased from gallery by Katherine White (1929-1980), Seattle, Washington, 1977; bequeathed to Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, Washington, 1981
Now on view at the
Seattle Art Museum
Resources
Published ReferencesMcClusky, Pamela, Repeat, Repeat, A Community of Collectors, Seattle, WA: Seattle Art Museum, 2008, p. 132, illus. fig 2.
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.
