code: 2024-II-EA

African tribal art: 

an old, carved wooden face mask, known as 

Omono - white monkey mask of the Dogon People, 

from, what is now Mali, West Africa,

 it represents a monkey that can be seen protruding from the top of the mask,

a non-threatening and unaggressive creature / spirit, 

this mask was carved from very dark wood, to which after carving and before use, a white pigment has been added that has darkened through time.

old masks like this one are rare and 

this one can be considered as important for its aesthetic quality:

the artist reduced the lower face to a concave plane, on which the only features are two holes, which are the eyes for the dancer to see through, curving forward above this face is the monkey figure, basically a round form atop an oval one, the arms and back encircle a hollow to create a composition both tense and strong, no details intrude on the minimal and simple, but tremendously three-dimensional sculpture, in which the holes and hollows are almost more important than the solid forms,

Dogon masks are worn primarily at dama, which is a collective funerary rite for Dogon men. Preparations for the dama are elaborate and costly so the ritual may be held several years after the death and burial of an individual. The dama culminates with a procession of masked dancers who escort the souls of the dead from the village to their final resting place in the spirit world. The goal of the ritual is to ensure the spirits have safe passage to the world of the ancestors. It also marks the end of the mourning period for the deceased. After the dama the masks would be abandoned, left to rest in a cave.

as decsribed by the Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC:

(...) Dogon masks are part of a complex ritual cycle and play an important role in initiation and funeral ceremonies. Since the 1930s, they have also been used in a variety of entertainment performances and today they continue to perform for tourists.

While more than 70 different Dogon masks have been identified, they can be grouped into five categories according to medium, whether fiber or wood; subject, whether animal, human or abstract; and character, whether predatory or nonpredatory.

This Dogon mask is non-threatening. Despite its black color wood, it is carved in a form usually identified as a white monkey. Neither the monkey nor the blank face have teeth and are considered non-aggressive.

Traditionally Dogon masks are controlled by the Awa society, a group of predominantly male initiates. The society's age-grouped membership functions outside the standard Dogon organizing factors of lineage and village. It conducts the public rites that insure the transition of the dead into the spirit world. A large number of masks are included both for the funerary rites and for the dama, the celebration at the end of mourning. The Awa leaders also direct the sigui, a celebration held only every 60 years to mark the change in generations (...)

age: although impossible to give it's age, we are convinced it is made in the

19th Century or first third of the 20th Century,

condition: good and stable, signs of high age and use, a wonderful patina, several losses to the patina surface, several harmless cracks, on the inside a reddish pigmentation

- do see all the pictures to judge the condition - they are part of the description -

the last (only informative) picture shows Dogon masks, photographed during the 

Mission Dakar - Djibouti 

a French ethnographic expedition between May 1931 and February 1933, lead by Marcel Griaule,

futher information can be found with searches as: Museum Rietberg, Hans Himmelheber, Dogon,

you can also find video's of the Dama ritual. 

max. height: circa 47 cm / circa 18.5 inch,

max. width: circa 15 cm / circa 5.9 inch

max. depth: circa 13 cm / 5.1 inch

weight: circa 1213 gram

provenance: 

- a private Dutch collection of African tribal art, collected since 1960

- an estate auction in The Hague, acquired by:

- Delta 98 Den Haag, The Hague, The Netherlands

please know: we are no experts on the subject of tribal art, we have done some limited, un-professional research, trying to attribute this statue to a land, country, tribe or people and judge the age to the best we could - do judge for yourself the tribal affilation and the correct age - we are selling this item "as is" and we will not accept returns if the buyer finds that we are wrong concerning these matters.