Headress (D'mba)

Label TextA monument to motherhood, it was a feat to perform in this headdress-the masquerader was completely covered with a raffia and cloth costume and had to look out from the sight holes between the elongated breasts. Hoisted up high, she would move with sweeping splendor. One scholar interviewed Baga people as to her meaning and recorded many impressions, including "She is the vision of woman at her zenith of power, beauty and affective presence."

Object number81.17.180

Provenance[Julius Carlebach Gallery, New York]; purchased from gallery by Katherine White (1929-1980), Seattle, Washington, 1961; 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. 147, reproduced fig. K-3 (as "nimba" mask). Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, Selections From The Katherine White Collection, March 12 -August, 1987

Credit LineGift of Katherine White and the Boeing Company

Dimensions51 1/2 x 18 1/8 x 26 1/8 in. (130.8 x 46 x 66.4 cm)

MediumWood and raffia