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Horizontal Anteater headdress (N'gonzon Koun)
Horizontal Anteater headdress (N'gonzon Koun)

Horizontal Anteater headdress (N'gonzon Koun)

Label TextCi Wara is still a powerful entity to be honored by a wide range of popularized entertainments. Public celebrations after days of heavy agricultural labor may be enlivened by the vision of a horizontal creature sweeping into sight. This horizontal Ci Wara is known as Gonzon, or anteater, renowned for their hardiness and stamina. Such headdresses serve as figureheads for the organization who sponsors this type of performance.
Object number81.17.22
Provenance[Galerie Simone de Monbrison, Paris, France]; purchased from gallery by Katherine White (1929-1980), Seattle, Washington, 1972; bequeathed to Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, Washington, 1981
Exhibition HistoryLos 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. 110, reproduced fig. F-5 (as "chi wara").Published ReferencesWooten, Stephen R. "Antelope Headdresses and Champion Farmers: Negotiating Meaning and Identity through the Bamana Ciwara Complex." African Arts, vol. 33, no. 2 (Summer 2000): pp. 18-33, 89-90, reproduced fig. 15.
Credit LineGift of Katherine White and the Boeing Company
Dimensions10 13/16 x 3 11/16 x 32 3/8 in. (27.5 x 9.4 x 82.3 cm)
MediumWood, metal, and fiber
Mask (Ntomo society)
Bamana
19th-20th century
Object number: 81.17.16
Head of the Komo (Komo-ku)
Bamana
Object number: 81.17.18
Mask
Bamana
19th-20th century
Object number: 81.17.19
Photo: Paul Macapia
Bamana
Object number: 81.17.23
Male Farming Animal headdress (Ci Wara)
Bamana
Object number: 81.17.24
Lion Mask
Bamana
1850-1980
Object number: 81.17.20
Hyena Mask (Kore Society)
Bamana
Object number: 81.17.546
Photo: Paul Macapia
Dan
1850 - 1980
Object number: 81.17.197.1
Head of the Kono (Kono-kun)
Bamana
Object number: 81.17.17