Face Mask (possibly early 1900s): Art, History and Details

Face Mask (possibly early 1900s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

A Dan face mask's use and the costume that accompanied it are important elements that contribute to the name it receives. While we don't know those details, we can say it originally had an elaborate fiber hairstyle attached through the holes around the edge. Based on its appearance and other similar examples, this face mask with a high forehead in northern Dan style may have been called either sagbwe or gunyege. As a "runner mask," it was engaged in running competitions once organized every Sunday during the dry season. As a "fire-watcher," its main task was to protect the village from fire when the dangerous desert wind called Harmattan blew during the dry season.

Object facts

• Title: Face Mask
• Date: possibly early 1900s
• Culture: Africa, West Africa, Côte d'Ivoire or Liberia, Dan-style maker
• Type: Mask
• Technique: Wood, metal, leather, and organic materials
• Dimensions: Overall: 22.9 cm (9 in.)
• Collection: African Art
• Department: African Art
• Accession number: 1972.331

A detail from the museum

The eyes of this mask were altered from slits to circles; the original shape is most visible on the right eye.

Collection credit

Gift of Katherine C. White

Further reading listed by the museum

• Fagg, William, and Cleveland Museum of Art. 1968. African Tribal Images; the Katherine White Reswick Collection. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, no. 55.
• Petridis, Constantine. “Honoring Women: A feast ladle of the Dan people of West Africa.” Cleveland Art: Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine 54, no. 5 (September/October 2014): 19-20.
• Smith, Fred T., Judith Perani, Joseph L. Underwood, and Martha J. Ehrlich. The Visual Arts of Africa : Gender, Power, and Life Cycle Rituals. Second edition. New York: Oxford University Press, 2022.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.