SENUFO MASK, KPELIE
COTE D'IVOIRE
£3,500
African & Oceanic Art, Antiquities and Natural History
Auction: 5 May 2020 at 12:00 BST
Description
carved wood, the oval face with pursed mouth, the eyes pierced with slits, two pairs of flanges on each side of the face and two projections emanating from the chin, the forehead topped with a hornbill, rich black patina
Dimensions
32cm tall
Footnote
Provenance:
Julien Harris (1910 - 2011), Scotland. Acquired in situ 1930, thence by descent.
This piece was acquired on a journey across West Africa that Harris undertook in 1930 alongside Geoffrey Gorer and Francois (Feral) Benga, a research trip which culminated in the book "Africa Dances". Benga was a Senegalese dancer at the Folies Bergère in Paris; known at the time as the male Josephine Baker and an icon of the Harlem Renaissance. Gorer, on the back of this work, went on to become a prominent anthropologist.