A bird sits atop a man’s head, leaning over just enough to tap its beak against the man’s forehead. There is nothing magnificent in its appearance, but the bird’s posture suggests it would be wise for the man to pay heed.
Just what message the winged figure is about to deliver is a mystery to Madeline Murphy Rabb, the owner of this wooden Senufo mask that first “touched” her 20 years ago during a visit to Africa’s Ivory Coast. So are its past and its ceremonial purpose.
For many African-Americans, these ethnic treasures, which have powerful roles in African rituals and ceremonies, possess great emotional and historical significance. But for others like Rabb and many of the growing number of African mask collectors, the attraction is the reverse of the spiritual aspect: it’s aesthetics. For them, it is the mask’s sculptural quality, the craftsmanship and simple beauty that set them on their quests.
“Their forms are beautiful to me, and they complement what you see here,” Rabb, a painter, jewelry designer and printmaker who heads Murphy Rabb Inc., a fine arts consulting business, says of the once-ceremonial African masks that mingle with her African-American and contemporary art.
Her two Senufo masks–both are about 30 years old–sit atop black metal stands in one of the 10-foot-tall windows in her apartment. They join another wooden mask, a Bundu mask that was used by the Mende tribe of Sierra Leone to celebrate a girl’s coming of age.
The trio blends easily in Rabb’s home as her earthy-toned contemporary furnishings sit back and let her paintings by African-American artists and sculptures by Richard Hunt and Marva Lee Pitchford Jolly get most of the attention.
The striking guises–adorned with images of birds or animals, beads or cowrie shells, metals, paints, cloth, tree roots, even hair–work best, says Sharne Algotsson, an interior designer and co-author of “The Spirit of African Design” (Clarkson Potter, $35), when grouped together. But, she adds, they also can be part of a mix of paintings and drawings on the wall.
She dismisses the belief that masks from conflicting tribes never should be hung on the same wall or grouped together. After all, she says, in African countries where masking traditions still exist, the ceremonial disguises are hidden from view, reserved for rituals. A mask never would be displayed on walls in the first place.
“Basically, a mask is a disguise. Its function may be to personify spirits, gods or ancestors, to assume social control, to educate or to elude responsibility for one’s actions,” writes Timothy Teuten in “A Collector’s Guide to Masks” (Wellfleet Press, $39.95).
Some masks are feared, says Deborah L. Mack, who directed the Africa exhibit at the Field Museum and now is curating the 50th Anniversary Exhibition of Melville J. Herskovits works at Northwestern University in Evanston. (Herskovits founded the Department of Anthropology and African Studies at Northwestern University.) Some masks are believed to embody the soul of an ancestor who has the power to punish, support or heal. Some, adds Mack, can power a spiritual transformation.
“In promoting the book in Africa, there were those Africans who were shocked to see the masks in the book used in the way they are in homes today,” says Algotsson. “But here it’s an art form from Africa that we appreciate and that we want to live with or have in our daily life in some way.”
“I didn’t know where it was from when I fell in love with it,” Alisa Starks says of the fertility mask from Zaire she keeps in the living room of her South Shore condominium. She also didn’t know its purpose. The Burrell Communications Group executive simply loved the mask’s textures and how it fit in with her lithographs by Nigerian artist Samuel Akainyah, her Egyptian prints and paintings by African-American artist Annie Lee.
Here, without the costumes that traditionally accompanied the masks in African rituals and ceremonies, these masks take on new lives, new roles, new meanings.
New lives as art. New roles as links to an ethnic heritage. New meanings–interpretations as unique as the masks themselves.
“I see the sculptural beauty in them but I also see that there is always something more to learn,” says Rabb. “No matter what your beliefs are, there are some (spiritual) elements given off by the (art) work. You can’t help being touched in some way.”
African art dealers like Mohammed and Debra Saco, who sell to Primitive Art Works in River North and art galleries across the country, say that while a collector who doesn’t know the whole story behind a mask is not at a disadvantage, he should learn to distinguish masks made for commercial use (tourism) from those made for ceremonial use. This, says Mohammed Saco, who was born in Gambia and began dealing in art with his family as a 12-year-old boy, is even more significant than a mask’s age in determining its value.
Not all African people incorporate masks in their traditions.
“There is no masking throughout southern or much of northern Africa,” says Mack. “Historically, it is not in eastern Africa. The tradition is very much part of western and central Africa.
“In Kenya, the Masai do not have a masking tradition. Yet now you see tourists who go there and return with Masai masks. The masks are made by the Masai but they are making the masks in response to tourists requests for them. . . . It doesn’t mean the masks are part of the traditions there.”
African countries where masks are used in traditions include Zaire, Angola, parts of Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Ghana and Burkina Faso.
Don’t misunderstand. Many “commercial” masks are created by African artisans whose cultures still include masking traditions, and they are authentic “African” masks.
“They are copies of the old masks–maybe 20, 30 or 40 years old, which have actually been worn with costumes in ceremonies–but the copies are newer and are made solely for the purpose of being sold for commercial purposes (and were) never intended to be used by the people they represent,” says Demba Sacchol, another African art dealer who was born in Guinea.
Still, they are considered less valuable than ceremonial masks, which sell for $200 to $2,000 or higher. The newer masks, whether commercial or ceremonial, sell for about $50 to $200.
Being able to identify a commercial mask is a skill collectors can develop with time and experience, says Sacchol. “There is a certain amount of wear that is naturally there in the wood, in cloth, in the material,” he says. “You begin to see it and to feel it.”
That’s a good thing, too, because information about a mask is not always shared by those who sell or give a mask to outsiders.
Even the experts have a hard time identifying the symbolism of the various adornments typically found on these masks–such as images of birds or animals, beads or cowrie shells, metals, tribal marks, paints, cloth, tree roots, even hair.
But whether or not a mask’s symbols are understood, their power lives on in one form or another.
Kathleen Bickford, assistant curator for the African art department of African and AmerIndian art at the Art Institute of Chicago, acknowledges the power these ceremonial masks possess.
Some masks are believed to carry powerful energies and are deactivated in special ceremonies when they are sold or leave a village, says Bickford.
“Masks are powerful,” she says, “but that’s true for all kinds of art. Art is meant to be powerful and meant to have an effect on the viewer.”
Felicia Lyda, owner of Filli Art Gallery in River North, has this advice for those just starting out: Collect masks that are representative of a people or a theme with which you feel some connection.
For art lovers like Rabb, that advice is easy to follow.
“I collect with my heart and my eye. I’m attracted to what touches me in some way, and these two masks,” she says, pointing to her Senufo masks, “did.”
BUYING TIPS
Determining the value of an African mask is not an exact science. Even the experts can be fooled about a mask’s age and origins. But they offer this advice to buyers for getting the most value for their buck:
– Focus on craftsmanship and artistry.
– Don’t focus on age.
– Remember: A distressed look alone does not a ceremonial mask make. Although used ceremonial masks do have a look of wear, new commercial masks can be distressed to give it a used look.
– Know that whether a mask was made for ceremonial or commercial use, it is “authentic” if made by African artists.
– Do some research and reading on your own.
WHERE TO FIND AFRICAN MASKS
Here are some area galleries and stores and mail-order sources that sell African masks:
By Nature, Miami-based mail-order catalog, 800-938-8811.
Filli, 730 N. Franklin St., 312-787-7710.
Primitive Art Works, 706 N. Wells St., 312-943-3770.
Spiegel Inc., a Downers Grove-based mail-order catalog, 800-345-4500 or 800-474-5555.
Window to Africa, 5210 S. Harper Ct., 773-955-7742.
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Before shopping you may want to visit the permanent Africa exhibit at the Field Museum, Roosevelt Road at Lake Shore Drive, 312-922-9410, and the permanent African art exhibit at the Art Institute of Chicago, 111 S. Michigan Ave., 312-443-3600.
MASK: READ ALL ABOUT IT
While there are many books written on African art, several stand out as particularly helpful in giving mask collectors a stimulating perspective of what this art form means in the cultures in which they’re used. The best books tell the stories behind the masks by delving into the meaning of carved symbols and the integration of masks into art collections in today’s homes. These books include:
– “Africa: The Art of a Continent,” edited by Tom Phillips (Prestel Verlag, $85). It’s a large coffee-table book filled with lush photos and information from historians and collectors.
– “African Art in Transit,” by Christopher Steiner (Cambridge Press, $19.95 paperback, $55 hardcover). This book deals with art made for the tourist trade.
– “Black Africa: Masks, Sculpture, Jewelry” by Laure Meyer (Pierre Terrail, $24.95). The beautiful pictorial display is supported by literary narrative.
– “A Collector’s Guide to Masks” by Timothy Teuten (Wellfleet Press, $12.98). A primer for the novice collector, it also helps to put the importance of a mask’s age in perspective.
– “The Spirit of African Design” by Sharne Algotsson and Denys Davis (Clarkson Potter Publishers, $35). Shows how masks are integrated with existing art collections in the home. PHOTO (color): NIGERIA
The carved wooden Ibo mask has a halo of red cloth and costs $275 at Primitive Art Works.
