A Guere Mask Lot n° 12

Mask Guere, Côte d'Ivoire Mit Sockel / with base Wood, metal. H 47 cm. Provenance: - Josef Müller (1887-1977), Solothurn. - Museum Barbier-Mueller, Geneva. - Gallery Walu, Zurich (1981). - Swiss private collection, Zurich. These masks were once used to prepare men for war. Later, however, they appeared on a wide variety of occasions: for example, they could appear at ceremonial festivities such as commemorations in honor of an important person, at court hearings, or simply to entertain the village. The combination of anthropo- and zoomorphic facial features gives this mask a particularly impressive expressiveness. Further reading: Verger-Fèvre, Marie-Noël: Côte d'Ivoire: Masques du pays Wé, in: Tribal. Le magazine de l'art tribal. No. 9/2005. Bruxelles: Primedia s.p.r.l. CHF 8 000 / 12 000 EUR 8 000 / 12 000