African Bobo ‘Burkina Faso’ Large Tribal Ram Helmet Mask with Curved Horns

Powerful early cubist carved wood standing female figure from the Bobo-Fing of Burkina Faso, Africa. Created early 20th century. Ex private collection Texas, originally acquired from James Willis...

Woven painted basketry yam helmet style mask from Papua New Guinea. Hollow woven form with traces of red and white pigments. Would have been put on top of a large yam as a part of th...

Carved wood dance mask from China with open expression, attached moustache and beard, large ears. Traces of many layers of paint, including red, blue, black and white pigments. Ex- ...

Large woven painted basketry wall mask created in Blackwater Rivers area, Papua New Guinea. With open expressive mouth and mask fringed with feathers, striking mask that easily hang...

Early antique hand carved Toma or Landai mask from Guinea, Africa. “These brooding, often quite large, masks represent a forest spirit, Landai. Masks lik...

Toussiana Plank Bird from Burkina Faso Mid XXem Provenance: private Swedish collection , auction The TOUSSIAN live in the Southwest of Burkina Faso. The mask presented here is a Loni...

The African Kuba Bwoom tribal mask is the oldest known mask, the Kuba bwoom mask. The materials used for the realization of the Mask are: Wood, colors and vibrates plants, caures, beads, animal hair. In dance it expresses exuberance and joy. The style is similar to that of the middle Kasai. This mask is a helmet with animal hair, carved with a very wide forehead and hollow cheeks that are announced by motifs or dashes and beads. The mouth of the mask is very pronounced carved in wood and then applied on the mask. To distinguish the forehead in different areas are used black and white beads to draw attention to other aspects of the face such as the nose and chin. The entire edge of the chin is surrounded by beads of various colors. The person wearing the mask cannot look because there are no holes for the eyes present; the mask must create the feeling of being blind. Some masks similar to the bwoom mask include the funny mask, the ram mask and initiation masks such as Nnup. The real Kuba masks...

Very beautiful mask with large pronounced eyes with the circular cavity shape. The mask depicts a nocturnal bird that can see in the darkness and manifest the presence of divinities ...