I have a fondness for African masks, especially if I know they are authentic. Unfortunately, most of the ones that look old and used are not. But they sell well. So I keep my eyes pealed for masks colorfully painted with store-bought enamel. That is what African carvers have been painting with on the masks they sell to dancers for ceremonies… since the middle of the last century.
Here is a handsome, 35-inch antelope mask that was probably performed only once and sold to a smart bystander. Most runners don’t buy this brightly colored stuff, and certainly not one with a jet plane on its middle horn. (That black color is actually a very dark blue. It has a big native repair on one of the horns, but it hardly detracts from its beauty.) I love it, but you won’t see it in a book or museum. A
One Comment
Aaron
Definitely Guro, and very similar to those depicted in Eberhard Fischer’s excellent book, “Guro.”