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Antelope mask (Nyanga)

Antelope mask (Nyanga)

1850-1980

Burkina Faso

Bobo

"The mask is never exactly that which it resembles." (Guy le Moal, 1980)

Is this an antelope or is it not? Look again at the horns to see an indication why this represents a spirit. Curving forward, such horns would not be seen on a natural antelope. Instead, masks are considered visitations by Dwo, the son of Wuro who created the universe. To celebrate the power of his actions, performers enact explosive spinning movements when the masks appear.





Wood, pigment, metal
25 x 10 3/4 x 14 7/8 in. (63.5 x 27.3 x 37.8 cm)
Gift of Katherine White and the Boeing Company
81.17.89
Provenance: [Le Petit Musée, Montréal, Québec]; purchased from gallery by Katherine White (1929-1980), Seattle, Washington, 1967; bequeathed to Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, Washington, 1981
location
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. 35.

Washington, D.C., National Gallery of Art, African Sculpture, organized by the International Exhibitions Foundation, Jan. 29 - Mar. 1, 1970 (Kansas City, Missouri, William Rockhill Neslon Gallery, Mar. 21 - Apr. 26, 1970; Brooklyn, New York, Brooklyn Museum, May 26 - June 21, 1970).

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., p. 135, reproduced pl. 174 (as "yanga" mask).
Published ReferencesRoy, Christopher. Art of the Upper Volta Rivers, Alain & Franciose Chaffin, 1988, no. 290, p. 335.

Robbins, Warren, African Art in American Collections, Smithsonian Institution Press, October, 1989.

Seattle Art Museum respectfully acknowledges that we are on Indigenous land, the traditional territories of the Coast Salish people. We honor our ongoing connection to these communities past, present, and future.

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