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KWELE MASK  WITH ENCIRCLING HORNS

Gabon  Equatorial Africa

Wood & Kaolin

45 x 30 cm

This is an excellent example of a rare Kwele Mask in good condition with high quality patina.

The curved slit crescent eyes are prominent in the concave face whitened with kaolin. Large powerful horns with black and white facets in line with the nose curve symmetrically around the sides. The central face is repeated on the outer horns to strengthen the insistent human-like gaze of this bush spirit.

These visual composition of colour, the play of solids and spaces, the repetition of shapes combine to transport the spectator into the world of the sacred and the dead.

For the cultures of the equatorial forest, ancestral spirits must always remain among the living.

The Kwele are a rare ethnic group in the northeast Gabon in Equatorial Africa.

A similar mask can be found in the Gustave Schindler collection in New York and the Musée Barbier-Mueller in Geneva..

 On custom steel stand. P.O.A