Metal masks are a rare sight in Africa, as are masks made for Islamic observances. Here both factors combine as the horns of a ram or goat crown a woman's face on a mask that emerged during ceremonies marking the end of Ramadan, the month of fasting.
Tin-lead alloy
10 7/16 x 5 5/8 x 2 15/16 in. (26.5 x 14.3 x 7.5 cm)
Gift of Katherine White and the Boeing Company
81.17.263
Provenance: [Stolper Galleries, New York]; purchased from gallery by Katherine White (1929-1980), Seattle, Washington, 1961; bequeathed to Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, Washington, 1981
Now on view at the
Seattle Art Museum
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. 133-5, reproduced pl. 172 (as "do" mask).
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.
