Africa, West Africa, Côte d'Ivoire or Liberia, Dan-style maker / possibly early 1900s
Face Mask
The Cleveland Museum of Art catalogs Face Mask as mask (Africa, West Africa, Côte d'Ivoire or Liberia, Dan-style maker · possibly early 1900s).
The eyes of this mask were altered from slits to circles; the original shape is most visible on the right eye.
A CLOSER LOOK
The museum identifies this mask as Wood, metal, leather, and organic materials.
The museum's collection notes: 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 ble
FOLLOW THE EVIDENCE
The Cleveland Museum of ArtFace MaskOriginal explanation based on the sources above. Images carry their own reuse terms.