Mask

CultureLega/Luba

Dateca. 1930-1940

MediumWood and kaolin

DimensionsOverall: 13 3/4 × 9 × 4 1/2 inches (34.93 × 22.86 × 11.43 cm)

Credit LineGift of Ralph T. Coe Center for the Arts, 2025

Object number2025.56.9

On View

Not on view

Terms

DescriptionThis white face mask has a large, heart-shaped face with globular eyes, a linear nose, and a diminutive mouth. Used primarily for initiation into adulthood and to confirm one's social status in Bwami Society, this larger idimu (ancestor) mask is typically worn on the face or back of the head.Provenance

Provenance

Roger Londoy, Belgium, by 1952 [1];

With Taylor Dale Gallery, Santa Fe, NM, by August 11, 2005;

Purchased from Taylor Dale Gallery by Ralph T. Coe (1929-2010), Santa Fe, NM, August 11, 2005-2010 [2];

His bequest to the Ralph T. Coe Center for the Arts, Santa Fe, NM, 2010-2025;

The Coe Center's gift to The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 2025.

NOTES:

[1] According to object documentation provided by the Ralph T. Coe Center for the Arts at the time of the object's gift, this mask was acquired by Londoy during his time working as a travelling doctor for the Union Minière du Haut-Katanga, a Belgian-British mining venture in the Kongo, between 1940 and 1952. See Nelson-Atkins curatorial files.

[2] Coe Center object documentation, Nelson-Atkins curatorial file.

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