Face Mask (Agboho mmuo)
possibly early 1900s
- Medium
- Wood, pigment, plant fiber, and cotton
- Classification
- Mask
- Dimensions
- Overall: 16.9 x 11 x 6 cm (6 5/8 x 4 5/16 x 2 3/8 in.)
- Culture
- Africa, West Africa, Nigeria, Igbo-style maker
- Museum
- Cleveland Museum of Art, African Art
- Credit line
- Gift of Kim Sherwin
- Rights
- Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Tweens profiles and older: its subjects are known and suit older children. How works are placed
View at the Cleveland Museum of Art
About this work
This small face mask would have been complemented by a separate, elaborate superstructure covered with cotton cloth. Though always worn by a man, the image glorifies youthful female beauty. Derived from chalky clay, the white coloration of the face refers to ancestral spirits whose powers the mask evokes. The masks dance in festivals that generally celebrate the dead but also appear at funerals to escort the deceased to the land of the ancestors.
