Single-faced Crest mask

Intense naturalism is taken to an extreme among the Ejagham. Originally, the masks may have represented heads of enemies killed in warfare. In the last century, they have been carved from wood and covered with carefully softened antelope skin. Shining pupils, pegged hair and a full set of teeth would add indelible special effects. Owned by groups of warriors and hunters, the mask would survey an audience with intimidating oversight.

Wood, skin, pigment, reed, bone

13 9/16 x 7 1/4 x 7 1/2 in. (34.5 x 18.4 x 19 cm)

Gift of Katherine White and the Boeing Company

81.17.508

Provenance: [Anthony Plowright, London, England]; sold to Katherine White (1929-1980), Seattle, Washington, 1972; 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., p. 177, reproduced pl. 214 (as headdress).

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