Bird Mask (Man na Gle)

Holding flywhisks and waving them gently, the wearer of such a bird mask would be accompanied by an orchestra as he danced and sang in tribute to two birds: the hornbill, a large bird thought to bring prized palm nuts to the Dan people and the parakeet, a bird skilled at cracking the nuts open.

Wood and metal

13 3/8 x 5 1/4 x 7 in. (33.9 x 13.3 x 17.8 cm)

Gift of Katherine White and the Boeing Company

81.17.196

Provenance: [J. J. Klejman Gallery, New York]; purchased from gallery by Katherine White (1929-1980), Seattle, Washington, 1961; bequeathed to Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, Washington, 1981

Photo: Paul Macapia

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. 59 (as Baboon Mask).

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., pp. 159-60, reproduced pl. 195 (as "To-la-ge" mask).

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Philadelphia Museum of Art, African Art, African Voices: Long Steps Never Broke a Back, organized by the Seattle Art Museum, Oct. 2, 2004 - Jan. 2, 2005 (Hartford, Connecticut, Wadsworth Atheneum, Feb. 12 - June 19, 2005; Cincinnati, Ohio, Cincinnati Art Museum, Oct. 8, 2005 - Jan. 1, 2006; Nashville, Tennessee, Frist Center for the Visual Arts, Jan. 27 - Apr. 30, 2006). Text by Pamela McClusky. No cat. no., pp. 189-90, reproduced pl. 83.

Published ReferencesMcClusky, Pamela. African Art: From Crocodiles to Convertibles in the Collection of the Seattle Art Museum, Seattle: Seattle Art Museum, 1987; cat. no. 14, pp. 26-27, reproduced (as Mask (Gagon)).

Seattle Art Museum: Bridging Cultures, London: Scala Publishers Ltd. for the Seattle Art Museum, 2007, p. 48

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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