Songye Luba Kifwebe Tribal Wood Mask, with White, Red and Black, Africa, Congo

Carved hard wood dance mask from China with powerful expression, open eyes. Traces of many layers of paint, including red green black and white pigments. Ex- private collection in C...

Carved wood smaller dance mask from Nepal with powerful expression, open eyes and open mouth with carved teeth and fangs, representing the Buddhist Mahakala, the demon chaser. The to...

Oval dance mask from Nepal with powerful expression, open eyes and oval mouth with finely carved teeth, nicely carved ears. Heavy black encrusted patina inside and out from tradition...

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- ...

Dance mask/ sculpture. Known as a Kifwebe mask. Songye. Carved wood. 20th century. With a few flaws and repairs.

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...

Traditionally, Kifwebe masks were created and worn by members of the secret masking society, Bwadi Bwa Kifwebe, of the Luba and the Songye People living in the central part of the Co...

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