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

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

The work and its context

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

Tubular eyes and the fringe of carved leopard canine teeth identify this mask as male. Such masks appeared only during very important moments. The dancer wore a leopard skin over his head and shoulders, held an elephant's tusk in his hand, and had his face painted white. The masks function as peacemakers; they led soldiers into battle, and administered justice.

Object facts

• Title: Face Mask (Tehe gla)
• Date: early 1900s
• Culture: Africa, West Africa, Côte d'Ivoire or Liberia, Wè-style carver
• Type: Mask
• Technique: Wood, boar tusks, pelt, cloth, human hair, probably aluminum, reeds, iron alloy, copper alloy, plant fiber, and paint
• Dimensions: Overall: 38.1 cm (15 in.)
• Collection: African Art
• Department: African Art
• Accession number: 1971.294

A detail from the museum

The masquerader who wore this mask also had a body costume of layers of raffia and matching anklets; cloth covered their head.

Collection credit

Gift of Katherine C. White

Further reading listed by the museum

• Boyer, Alain-Michel. We. Milano: 5 Continents Editions, 2020.
• Fagg, William. African Tribal Images; the Katherine White Reswick Collection. [Cleveland]: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1968.
• “New Acquisitions.” African Arts 5, no. 4 (Summer 1972): 77–78.

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.