Early 20th C. Gabon Punu Polychrome Wood Mask

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Pre-Columbian | Tribal | Oceanic

By Artemis Gallery

Mar 18, 2021

Set Reminder 2021-03-18 10:00:00 2021-03-18 10:00:00 America/New_York Bidsquare Bidsquare : Pre-Columbian | Tribal | Oceanic https://www.bidsquare.com/auctions/artemis-gallery/pre-columbian-tribal-oceanic-6520
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• Lot Description
  Central Africa, Gabon, Upper Ngoume River area, Punu peoples, ca. early 20th century CE. A lovely hand-carved and painted wooden mask carved out along the verso. The beautiful visage is composed of bulging ovoid eyes with carved horizontal slits along the midlines, slender, high-arching brows, a broad triangular nose, puckered red lips protruding above a pointed chin, petite, cup-shaped ears, and a broad forehead, all beneath a lobed coiffure/headdress with openings between, perhaps intended for an ornament or additional lobes. The face is painted with thick white pigment derived from kaolin (see more on the significance of this in the extended description below) and accentuated with black pigment on the brows and coiffure in addition to the red on the lips. The unpainted areas exhibit a fine patina and scattered deposits. Size: 5.625" L x 5" W x 11.125" H (14.3 cm x 12.7 cm x 28.3 cm); 14.875" H (37.8 cm) on included custom stand.
  
  According to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, "When works from Equatorial Africa in this refined style began to enter Western consciousness in the early twentieth century, they were a great enigma to art critics. Many speculated about the sources of their exotic aesthetic and even proposed possible Asian influence, though the art form was in fact indigenous to southern Gabon. Such masks were worn by virtuosic male performers of a stilt dance called 'mukudj,' which involved towering impressively while executing complex choreography and astonishing feats of acrobatics. The creator of a 'mukudj' mask would attempt to capture the likeness of the most beautiful woman in his community. . . Kaolin taken from riverbeds, which was associated with healing and with a spiritual, ancestral realm of existence, was applied to the surface of the face. By using this material, the artist both celebrated the beauty of a mortal woman and transformed her into a transcendent being."
  
  Provenance: private New York, New York, USA collection; purchased in Munich, Germany in the 1960s (Boris Konietzko)
  
  All items legal to buy/sell under U.S. Statute covering cultural patrimony Code 2600, CHAPTER 14, and are guaranteed to be as described or your money back.
  
  A Certificate of Authenticity will accompany all winning bids.
  
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  #160381

  Condition

  Losses and inactive insect wear/losses to coiffure, visage, ears, and verso as shown. Cracks around left eye and across upper lid. Normal surface wear with some loss to pigmentation, but still shows nice remains of red, black, and white pigments. Two partial perforations on verso behind lips, perhaps for former attachment.
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