H x W x D: 56.6 x 24.1 x 56.7 cm (22 5/16 x 9 1/2 x 22 5/16 in.)
Type:
Mask
Geography:
Burkina Faso
Date:
Early to mid-20th century
Label Text:
Among Bobo peoples of southeastern Burkina Faso, masks are owned by families and appear in initiation ceremonies, burial and funeral rites, harvest ceremonies and in masquerades intended solely to entertain. This helmet mask, called bolo (pl. bole), is an entertainment mask. It illustrates the widespread use of red, black and white pigments and the carved or pyroengraved geometric patterns that characterize much of Bobo and neighboring Gurunsi sculptural arts. Black pigment is made from boiled seedpods, red from ground stone that is rich in iron and white pigment from gathered lizard excrement or ground classroom chalk.
Entertainment masks like this one are often danced on market days for all to see and enjoy. They may represent people or animals and are worn with fiber costumes. In Bobo iconography, chameleons, like the one adorning this mask, symbolize change or transformation, particularly when a person moves from this world to that of the spirits. Like all wooden Bobo masks, this helmet mask was carved by an artist from a smith clan. In Bobo cosmology, smiths were the first beings to be created by the deity, Wuro. When Wuro withdrew from the world, he left behind a part of himself, Dwo, his son, whose multiple manifestations are reflected in the great variety of Bobo masks. As the first to be created, smiths were also the first to receive masks from Wuro; this entitles them to control the production and use of all Bobo masks, be they crafted from wood, cloth, leaves or fiber.
Description:
Wood helmet mask with superstructure of crescents, birds and lizard and red and white pigments forming overall geometric patterns and highlighting the triangular symmetrical facial features.
Provenance:
,Eliot Elisofon, New York, 1959 to 1973, collected in Mali, 1959
Exhibition History:
African Art in Color, National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., May 17-October 9, 1983
Life...Afterlife: African Funerary Sculpture, National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., November 19, 1981-March 1, 1982
Masterpieces of African Sculpture: An Exhibition of Significant Works of Sculpture from More Than Forty of the Major Tribal Traditions of Africa Dating from the Early Ninth Century to the Twentieth, Joe and Emily Lowe Art Center, Syracuse University, School of Art, February 16-April 1, 1964
Published References:
Davidson, Basil. [1966] 1971. African Kingdoms. New York: Time-Life, p. 161.
Robbins, Warren. 1966. African Art in American Collections. New York: Frederick A. Praeger, p. 60, no. 33.
Syracuse University, School of Art. 1964. Masterpieces of African Sculpture: An Exhibition of Significant Works of Sculpture from More Than Forty of the Major Tribal Traditions of Africa Dating from the Early Ninth Century to the Twentieth. Syracuse, no. 168.
Walker, Roslyn A. 1983. African Art in Color. Exhibition brochure. Washington, D.C.: National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, no. 8.
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