Mask

Congolese

Luba

Combining a human face with down swept horns, this mask may be alluding to the unique affiliations of a ram or buffalo with a Luba culture hero. Mbidi Kiluwe was the founder of the sacred kingdom and was named "the black buffalo."

Wood and pigment

19 x 15 x 15 in. (48.2 x 38.1 x 38.1 cm)

Gift of Katherine White and the Boeing Company

81.17.868

Provenance: [Merton D. Simpson Gallery, New York]; purchased from gallery by Katherine White (1929-1980), Seattle, Washington, 1966; bequeathed to Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, Washington, 1981

Photo: Elizabeth Mann

Now on view at the Seattle Art Museum

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. 262, reproduced and on cover.

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., pp. 135, 141, reproduced pl. 178.

Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, Praise Poems: The Katherine White Collection, July 29 - Sept. 29, 1984 (Washington, D.C., National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, Oct. 31, 1984 - Feb. 25, 1985; Raleigh, North Carolina Museum of Art, Apr. 6 - May 19, 1985; Fort Worth, Texas, Kimbell Art Museum, Sept. 7 - Nov. 25, 1985; Kansas City, Missouri, Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Mar. 8 - Apr. 20, 1986). Text by Pamela McClusky. Cat. no. 42, pp. 92-93, reproduced.

Published ReferencesCeyssens, Rick; De Luulu a Tervuren: La Collection Oscar Michaux au Musee Royal de l'Afrique centrale, 2011, ph. 35

Seattle Art Museum: Bridging Cultures, London: Scala Publishers Ltd. for the Seattle Art Museum, 2007, p. 48

Petridis, Constantine, Bwadi Bwa Chikwanga: A Ram Mask of the Bakwa Luntu, in African Arts, Vol. 38, No. 2 (Summer 2005), pp. 50-59+93-95, p. 58 image 10, p. 59

Tguten, Timothy; A Collectors Guide to Masks, Charles Letts in U.K., Booksales in U.S., fall 1990

Seattle Art Museum: Praise Poems, 1984, p. 92, pl. 42

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