Baule Portrait Mask, Côte d'Ivoire

Acquired in situ during the first quarter of the 20^th century

Thence by descent

Christie's, Paris, Art Africain et Océanien, June 20, 2006, lot 92, consigned by the above

Roland and Edith Flak, Paris, acquired at the above auction

Karl-Ferdinand Schädler Collection, Munich, acquired from the above

Sotheby's, New York, African, Oceanic and Pre-Columbian Art, May 7, 2016, lot 27, consigned by the above

Private Collection, acquired at the above auction

San Francisco, Tribal & Textile Arts Show. Fine art of native cultures, February 9 - 11, 2007

Paris, Galerie Flak, Face à Face. Masques secrets, visages révélés, September 12 - November 3, 2007

New York, African Art at Madison, AOA Tribal Art Fair New York, May 10 - 15, 2011

Tribal & Textile Arts Show. Fine art of native cultures, San Francisco, 2007, p. 64

Comte, H. and Lascault, G., Face à Face, Galerie Flak, Paris, 2007, p. 33

African Art at Madison, AOA Fair, New York, 2011

Flak, J., Formes Pures, Galerie Flak, Paris, 2014

Goy, B., Yaouré. Visages du Sacré, Galerie Eric Hertault, Paris, 2019, p. 5, fig. 3

Zemanek, D., "Pour une quête d'une vue d'ensemble : Karl-Ferdinand Schädler" in Tribal Art Magazine, n° 99, 2021, p. 96, fig. 5

Portrait masks, known as Mblo, are one of the most emblematic forms of Baule sculpture. By comparing the present example with a closely related mask, it can be attributed to the master Baule sculptor Owie Kimou de Kami (d. 1948), one of the few traditional Baule artists whose name has come down to us. One of this artist's masterpieces was previously in the collection of Myron Kunin [1], and featured on the cover and back cover of Susan Vogel's reference work, Baule: African Art, Western Eyes.

She noted that “Mblo masks […] are one of the oldest of Baule art forms. This refined human face mask, the prototypical Baule object in art collections, is usually a portrait of a particular known individual. […] More than any other kind of mask, Mblo embody the core Baule sculpture style manifested in figures and decorated objects – spoons, combs, pulleys and the like. Lustrous curving surfaces, suggesting clean, healthy, well-fed skin, are set off by delicately textured zones representing coiffures, scarifications, and other ornaments. The idealized faces are introspective, with the high foreheads of intellectual enlightenment and the large downcast eyes of respectful presence in the world. Ornaments above the face […] are chosen for their beauty, and have no iconographic significance; braided beards, and fine scarifications and coiffures, denote personal beauty, refinement, and a desire to give pleasure to others. […] The Mblo portrait mask was the summit of Baule sculpture, the most beautiful art form […].” [2].

According to Philipp Ravenhill (in Phillips 1995: 142, text to cat. 71), Baule portrait masks were “worn to enact a series of characters who dance to music with a participatory audience. The performance climaxes with the arrival of [Mblo] in human form, especially portrait masks inspired by actual people. The subject portrayed in, and honored by, a mask [occasionally danced] with it and address[ed] it affectionately as 'namesake' (Ndoma). As in Baule figurative sculpture that depicts otherworldly mates or bush spirits, the face of the mask is critical to Baule ideas of personhood and verisimilitude. It is in looking at the mask's gaze that one perceives it as a person with a living presence.”

And Vogel continues: Baule sculptures "are appreciated for their subtle rhythms and a beauty that stops short of sweetness. To the Western eye, an essence of Baule style is a balanced asymmetry that enlivens while suggesting stability and calm. [...] To an art historian, the most consistent feature of Baule art, and one expressed across the wide variety of Baule object types, is a kind of peaceful containment. Faces tend to have downcast eyes […] so that Westerners might feel that the mood of much classical Baule art is introspective." [3].

[1] Sotheby's, New York, In Pursuit Of Beauty: The Myron Kunin Collection Of African Art, November 11, 2014, lot 32

[2] Vogel, S., Baule : African Art, Western Eyes, Washington D.C., 1997, pp. 141 - 144

[3] Vogel, S., Baule : African Art, Western Eyes, Washington D.C., 1997, p. 26 and 28