Mask - Wood - Provenance Modou Sow - Dan Kran - Liberia

Old carved wooden face mask with animal hair and various organic pigments and offer remains.
provenance:Modou Sow, a dutch scholar who worked for the Berg en Dal Africa Museum

Sold with a custom made wood stand.

This ‘Cubist’ Dan Kran Mask is used during feasts of the Dan-Kran and (also Wè & Guere ) representing a chimpanzee monkey (Kagle) dancing and jumping. The semicircular, bulging forehead above the deep-set, round eyes protrudes remarkably, as are also the angular cheeks and triangular-shaped nose and the expressive metal teeth above a beard made of European bronze bells, and blue glass beads.
Some white coloring on top of the head, crusty patina with some shiny parts at the edges. Dark patina on the inside. Leather on the upper and lower lips fixed with oxidised iron nails

Overall a very expressive mask: Expected age after 1970
H: 30 cm. 38 cm on the custom made wood stand.


Lit.: ‘Die Kunst der Dan’ by Fischer & Himmelheber, Rietberg Museum Zurich, ill. 78, 80, 82, 84; ‘African Art in American Collections’ by Robbins & Nooter, ill. 327; ‘The Tribal Arts of Africa’ by Jean-Baptiste Bacquart, p. 36, ill. 7.

Map: Viard, les Guérés peuple de la forêt