Skip to main content
Collections Menu
SAM'S collection
Mask (Lipiko)
Mask (Lipiko)

Mask (Lipiko)

Label TextWhile vividly realistic, the actual character each Makonde mask portrays cannot be known without documentation of its performance. This mask is likely to have been worn by senior men, whose interpretation would involve fast whirling motions, rising dust and loud drums that would stop abruptly to interject a sudden stillness. With the masked face only nodding slightly, the face with a frozen expression begins to reveal it is one to fear, since it does not relax from an unsmiling presence.
Object number81.17.1220
Provenance[Gallery K, Los Angeles, California]; purchased from gallery by Katherine White (1929-1980), Seattle, Washington, 1979; bequeathed to Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, Washington, 1981
Published ReferencesBurt, Eugene C., East African Art in the Collection of the Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, WA: Seattle Art Museum, 1985, no. 1, p. 8 McClusky, Pamela, Repeat, Repeat, A Community of Collectors. Seattle, WA: Seattle Art Museum, 2008, p.132, illus. fig.1.
Credit LineGift of Katherine White and the Boeing Company
Dimensions9 x 6 7/8 x 6 1/8 in. (22.8 x 17.5 x 15.5 cm)
MediumWood, human hair
Masks (Lipiko)
Makonde
20th century
Object number: 2004.106
Helmet Mask
Makonde
early 20th century
Object number: 2004.103
Makonde
Object number: 81.17.1222
Mask with pelele
Makonde
ca. 1900 - 10
Object number: 2001.1079
Photo: Elizabeth Mann
Makonde
20th century
Object number: 2006.96
Photo: Scott Leen
Bamenda, Tikar
Object number: 91.252
Maravi
20th century
Object number: 81.17.1227
Joe David (Nuu-cha-nulth, Dididaht, born 1946)
ca.1974
Object number: 2024.19.218
Photo: Paul Macapia
Native American
ca. 1840
Object number: 91.1.38
Photo: Paul Macapia
Makonde
1938
Object number: 2001.1080