Water Deity Headdress

Artist Etim Abassi Ekpenyong (Nigerian, active early 20th century)

Dateearly 20th century

MediumWood, goatskin, and pigment

DimensionsOverall: 31 × 40 × 10 1/2 inches (78.74 × 101.6 × 26.67 cm)

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

Object number94-30

On View

On view

Gallery Location

Collections

African Art

Terms

DescriptionThe mask is in the form of a crocodile's head with two large spiraling animal horns on each side. horns are covered with animal hide. mouth of the crocodile is open, displaying a red tongue and a row of wooden teeth.Gallery Label

Gallery Label

This headdress combines the spiral hairstyle of a newly initiated maiden with a crocodile's gaping jaws. It represents a distinctive masquerade form attributed to early-20th-century master carver Etim Abassi Ekpenyong. Although skin-covered headdresses inspired by maidens with spiral coiffures were a well-established form, Ekpenyong's innovation was to combine it with a menacing crocodile, creating a new, visually arresting image of beauty allied to wilderness power. This headdress is associated with masquerades honoring water deities who were thought capable of transforming themselves into powerful water snakes or crocodiles.

Provenance

With Edward Klejman (b. 1938), Paris, late 1960s [1];

Purchased from Klejman by the dealer Daniel Hourdé, by ca. 1983;

Purchased from Hourdé by Merton Simpson Gallery, New York, stock no. 5535, ca. 1983 [2];

With Donald Morris Gallery, Birmingham, MI, by February 1994;

Purchased from Donald Morris Gallery by The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 1994.

NOTES:

[1] According to Steven A. Morris, Donald Morris Gallery, in a letter to David Binkley, Curator, September 14, 1994, NAMA curatorial files.

[2] An entry for this object in the African Heritage and Documentation Research Center database, www.ahdrc.eu, object no. 0091014, lists the Merton Simpson stock number. According to Steven A. Morris (see note 1), “The previous owner [Merton Simpson] knew of and was interested in the work many years ago and was able to buy it about 10 or 12 years ago through an artist/dealer named Daniel Hourde who secured it from Edward Klejman, Paris.”

Published References

Newsletter (The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Winter 1995): cover, 2, (repro.).

Joyce M. Youmans, “African Art at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art,” African Arts 33, no. 4 (Winter 2000), 49, 57, 59 (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), 250, (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.