KPELIÉ

Details

a superb senufo mask
Kpelié
With pierced slit eyes and slender nose, projecting rectangular mouth, the face surrounded by panels with incised ornament, a projecting panel at the top carved in high relief with five rows of three bosses, flanked by curved horns, fine old dark patina
29.5cm. high

Provenance

Jean-Paul and Monique Barbier, Geneva, Switzerland
Christie's March 20, 1979, lot 42

Special notice

Christie's charge a buyer's premium of 20% (VAT inclusive) for this lot.

Lot Essay

William Fagg, writing about this fine mask for the Christie's catalogue states: This is clearly one of the oldest of extant kpelié masks and not surprisingly is among the most classical in form and detail. The features are softened with age, but would never have been so sharp as on the later generations of masks, which proliferate in many directions as romanticism sets in and "feedback" becomes more and more common

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