- 81
Masque, Gurunsi, Burkina Faso
Description
- Gurunsi
- Masque
- haut. 93 cm
- 36 2/3 in
Provenance
Collection privée, acquis en 1978
Catalogue Note
William Fagg attribue ce masque aux Zarara, « sous-ethnie ou clan » compris dans la mosaïque de groupes dits « Gurunsi », implantés au sud-ouest du plateau Mossi. Tandis que leurs masques figuratifs évoquent les animaux issus de la mythologie clanique (buffles, antilopes, oiseaux, etc.), ceux personnifiant, sous une forme surnaturelle, un esprit de la brousse se distinguent, comme ici, par leur exceptionnelle inventivité plastique.
Au jeu de courbes superbement maîtrisé – décliné à l’arrière dans l’élégance de forme cintrée - répond la beauté abstraite du décor polychrome, variant sur les deux faces. S’ajoute enfin l’élégance de la figure féminine projetée au centre de la composition, que ce masque est le seul de ce corpus très restreint, à avoir conservé.
Gurunsi mask, Burkina Faso
In 1970, for the African Sculpture exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum, William Fagg selected one of very few masks that matches the one presented here almost perfectly, and which is kept at the National Museum of Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso). Its structure, which is "unique, was originally based on an aquatic bird and gradually evolved to reach a prodigious level of abstraction, reminiscent of the trills of a bird or even the aura of a Matisse painting, where curves become an end in themselves. […] This type of outline could not have existed in European art before the modern era." (Fagg, 1969, p. 119, No. 39).
William Fagg attributes this mask to the Zarara, "a sub-ethnic group or clan" within the mosaic of groups known as "Gurunsi" and implanted to the southwest of the Mossi plateau While their figurative masks evoke animals featured in clan mythology (buffaloes, antelopes, birds, etc.), the exceptionally innovative aesthetics of the masks that embody spirits of the bush in a supernatural guise endow them with an exceptional quality, as is the case with the one at hand.
The beautiful craftsmanship of the elaborately drawn curves - mirrored in the arched lines of the back - is echoed in the abstract beauty of the polychromatic decor, which changes on each side. Finally, the figure is also enhanced by the elegance of the female figure placed in the middle of the composition, which this mask alone has retained within its very limited corpus.