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Funeral Head mask (Kponungo)
Funeral Head mask (Kponungo)

Funeral Head mask (Kponungo)

Label TextSenufo horizontal masks are armed with confrontational features: baboon-like creatures with tiny eyes, enlarged teeth and distorted faces, disheveled costumes and restless behavior. These masked mediators often appear at the death of an important person, guarding the living and encouraging the deceased to return to an ancestral village.
Object number51.13
ProvenanceMathias Komor, New York; to SAM 1951; Eugene Fuller Memorial Collection
Exhibition HistoryCleveland, Ohio, The Cleveland Museum of Art, Senufo Unbound: Dynamics of Art and Identity in West Africa, 22 February - 31 May 2015, St Louis Art Museum, 28 June - 27 September 2015, Musee Fabre, Montpellier, France, 28 November 2015 - 6 March 2016. Text by Susan Elizabeth Gagliardi. Catalog no. 62, p. 96 (color).Published ReferencesHandbook, Seattle Art Museum: Selected Works from the Permanent Collections. Seattle, WA: Seattle Art Museum, 1951, p. 7 (b&w)
Credit LineEugene Fuller Memorial Collection
Dimensions9 7/8 x 17 7/16 x 9 7/16 in. (25.1 x 44.3 x 24 cm)
MediumWood, polychrome
Funeral Head mask (Kponungo)
Ivorian
Object number: 81.17.261
Funeral Head mask (Kponungo)
Senufo
Object number: 81.17.265
Crest Mask (Zamble)
Ivorian
Object number: 51.48
Elephant mask for Dye ensemble
Ivorian
Object number: 81.17.252
Gu mask
Ivorian
Object number: 81.17.253
Zamble mask
Ivorian
Object number: 81.17.254
Face mask (Kpelie-yehe)
Ivorian
Object number: 81.17.259
Mask (Kwonro)
Ivorian
Object number: 81.17.260
Face mask (Kpeli-yehe)
Ivorian
Object number: 81.17.262
Female spirit mask (kpan)
Ivorian
Object number: 51.14