Mask of the Bwadi bwa Kifwebe Society

CultureSongye

Datelate 19th century

MediumWood, pigment, fiber, hide, and shell

DimensionsOverall: 50 1/2 × 23 × 17 inches (128.27 × 58.42 × 43.18 cm)

Credit LinePurchase: William Rockhill Nelson Trust through the George H. and Elizabeth O. Davis Fund

Object number92-18

On View

On view

Gallery Location

Collections

African Art

Terms

DescriptionWooden face mask with attached netted head covering and shirt back. The mask is composed of a wooden face with enlarged forehead and projecting mouth. Incised parallel lines cover the entire mask. White pigmen (kaolin) is applied to this surface. The mask is divided vertically by a brown/black line that runs down the forehead across the nose and on the chin of the mask. The back of the mask is covered by a netted fiber head covering. A hide-covered projection (horn) is attached to the netted head covering at the top of the mask. The head covering is attached to the back of a shirt with netted arms and hands with three fingers. A fiber beard extends from the bottom of the mask to cover the front of the costume. Traces of pigment are visible on the surface of the netted costume.Exhibition History

Exhibition History

African Sculpture: The Shape of Surprise, C.W. Post Art Gallery, School of the Arts, C.W. Post Center of Long Island University, Greenvale, Long Island, NY, February 17-March 30, 1980, no. 166.

Gallery Label

This female mask was danced for Kifwebe masquerades, which unleash sorcery's menacing power to reinforce the authority of chiefs and elders. Masked male and female dancers are embodiments of supernatural beings from the forest wilderness. Materials and other characteristics of this costume-tree fiber, the horn-like projection and facial striations-suggest a forest antelope's horn and white markings. In contrast to male maskers' fearsome, unrestrained movements, the subdued movements of the female masker express benevolent, mystical power. Female masks activated with sacred white clay express ritual purity, wisdom and fertility.

Provenance

Acquired in Africa by members of the Missions du Saint-Esprit, Nimeuye, Netherlands, ca. 1904 [1];

Acquired from the Missions du Saint-Esprit by Jef Vanderstraete (1904-1984), Brussels, Belgium, after 1950 [2];

Morris J. Pinto (1925-2009), Paris, Geneva and New York;

With Merton D. Simpson, New York, 1977 [3];

Marc (1930-2012) and Denyse Ginzberg, New York, 1977-1992;

Purchased from Marc and Denyse Ginzberg, through L & R Entwistle & Co, Ltd, London, by The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 1992.

NOTES:

[1] According to L & R Entwistle & Co, in documentation provided at the time of this object’s purchase, NAMA curatorial files, “The present mask was acquired in Europe by the late Jef van de Straete from the Missions du Saint-Esprit at Nimeuye in Holland who are said to have collected it in or about 1904.”

[2] Ibid. According to the African Heritage Documentation & Research Centre database, www.ahdrc.eu, object no. 0012844, Vanderstraete bought his first African objects in the very early 1950s.

[3] According to the African Heritage Documentation & Research Centre database, www.ahdrc.eu, object no. 0041080, copy in NAMA curatorial files.

Published References

Susan Vogel, African Sculpture: The Shape of Surprise, exh. cat. (Greenvale, NY: C.W. Post Art Gallery, 1980), 47.

Warren M. Robbins and Nancy Ingram Nooter, African Art in American Collections (Washington, DC and London: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1989), 464, (repro.).

Newsletter (The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, March 1993), cover, 2, (repro.).

“The Nelson Celebrates its 60th,” The Kansas City Star (July 18, 1993), J-1, J-5, (repro.).

Roger Ward and Patricia J. Fidler, eds., The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art: A Handbook of the Collection (New York: Hudson Hills Press, in association with Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 1993), 86, (repro).

Joyce M. Youmans, “African Art at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art,” African Arts 33, no. 4 (Winter 2000), 49, 57-58, (repro.).

Marc Ginzberg, The African Art Collection of Marc and Denyse Ginzberg (New York: private edition, 2003), no. 70.

Newsletter (The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, September/October 2003), 6, (repro.).

Deborah Emont Scott, ed., The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art: A Handbook of the Collection, 7th ed. (Kansas City, MO: Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 2008), 249, (repro.).

Julian Zugazagoitia and Laura Spencer. Director's Highlights: The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art Celebrating 90 Years, ed. Kaitlyn Bunch (The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 2024), 137, (repro.).

Information about a particular artwork or image, including provenance information, is based upon historic information and may not be currently accurate or complete. Research on artwork and images is an ongoing process, and the information about a particular artwork or image may not reflect the most current information available to the Museum. If you notice a mistake or have additional information about a particular artwork or image, please e-mail provenance@nelson-atkins.org.