Ijo mask, Nigeria - Lot 8

Lot n° 8
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Estimation :
1500 - 3000 EUR
Ijo mask, Nigeria - Lot 8
Ijo mask, Nigeria Wood H. 93 cm Provenance : Private collection, Canada Belonging to the Sakapu initiation society, this mask, in reference to the water spirit, owu, appeared to celebrate. Among the limited corpus of Ijo masks, this one stands out for the rarity of its composition and its resolutely cubist construction, "one of the boldest and most accomplished of all African sculpture" (Paulme, Les Sculptures de l'Afrique noire, 1956, p. 76). Carved from dense wood, its highly stylized features carved in champlevé, its forms reduced to the essential, its pure lines and curves, accentuate and sublimate the intensity of its expressiveness. Its powerful volumes are skilfully articulated in a play of planes and projections in space, giving the face a striking dynamic and rhythm. Inscribed on a flat, vertical base, the face with its rounded oval forehead emerges in champlevé. Its imposing triangular nose, linked to the clearly marked superciliary arches, forms the junction between the planes of the face, announcing and delimiting the hollowed, then flat surface of the lower face. Her cylindrical eyes are projected forward, as is her oval mouth, whose lips are signified by a division into a horizontal line.
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