Mask (Bwoom) (mid- to late 1800s): Art, History and Details

Mask (Bwoom) (mid- to late 1800s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

Among the Bushoong, the central Kuba group, the mask known as bwoom—most typically identified as the head of a hunter-gatherer—forms a triad with a female mask and another male mask. All three are protagonists in the reenactment of the foundation of the Kuba kingdom. Outside the capital, however, bwoom appears in different non-royal contexts, such as the men’s initiation society.

Object facts

• Title: Mask (Bwoom)
• Date: mid- to late 1800s
• Culture: Africa, Central Africa, Democratic Republic of Congo, Kuba-style carver
• Type: Mask
• Technique: Wood and paint
• Dimensions: Overall: 43.3 x 31.2 x 28.3 cm (17 1/16 x 12 5/16 x 11 1/8 in.)
• Collection: African Art
• Department: African Art
• Accession number: 1935.304

A detail from the museum

Imagine this mask topped with eagle feathers; they would have been added only on special occasions when it was performed.

Collection credit

James Albert Ford Memorial Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Franklin, David and C. Griffith Mann. Treasures from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland: The Cleveland Museum of Art; London: Scala Publishers Ltd, 2012. pg. 238-9.
• Museum of Modern Art (New York, N.Y.), and James Johnson Sweeney. African Negro Art. New York: Museum of Modern Art, 1935.
• The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Handbook. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1958.

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.