Karan Wemba (elder/ancestor hiding behind something) mask

Vibrant women at the height of their physical beauty are captured in mask form to honor wembe, the female elders of the Mossi. Masqueraders compliment the wembe by dancing at funerals. Such a respectful young woman escorts the spirit of the deceased out of the lineage compound to join the realm of the ancestors.

Wood

39 x 8 1/4 x 7 1/8 in. (99.1 x 21 x 18.1 cm)

Gift of Katherine White and the Boeing Company

81.17.109

Provenance: [Merton D. Simpson Gallery, New York]; purchased from gallery by Katherine White (1929-1980), Seattle, Washington, 1968; bequeathed to Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, Washington, 1981

Not currently on view

Resources

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., pp. 106-7, reproduced pl. 145 (as "karan-weba" mask).

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. 33, pp. 74-75, reproduced (as Mask with female figure (karan-wemba)).

Published ReferencesHammond, Peter B. Yatenga: Tachnology in the Culture of a West African Kingdom, New York (1966), p. 86-87+116-119+172-175+221-222.

Roy, Christopher D. "Mossi Masks and Crests." Ph.D. diss., Indiana University, 1979; pp. 136-60.

Roy, Christopher D. "African Art in the Stanley Collection." African Arts, vol. 16, no. 3 (May 1983): pp. 32-46, 79.

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