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Mask (Omono or Tana Wurum Bogoro)
early 1900s
- Medium
- Wood and paint
- Classification
- Mask
- Dimensions
- Overall: 91.5 cm (36 in.)
- Culture
- Africa, West Africa, Mali, Dogon-style blacksmith-carver
- Museum
- Cleveland Museum of Art, African Art
- Credit line
- Gift of Katherine C. White
- Rights
- Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Teens profiles and older: its museum says too little about what it shows to place it for younger viewers. How works are placed
View at the Cleveland Museum of Art
About this work
Dogon masks can be interpreted on two fundamentally different levels: “front speech” (giri so) reflects an early stage of knowledge and consists of a tale that is intended to arouse curiosity; and “speech of the world” (aduno so) refers to Dogon cosmogony, reserved for highly instructed men and women. Masked dances have recently been organized in Dogon regions for tourists and dignitaries. The character of omono is a rare one among the 80 or so that appear in Dogon masquerades.
