Description
Yaoure mask, Ivory Coast Wood H. 37,5 cm Provenance : Paul and Jacqueline Canfère collection acquired from Jean-Michel Huguenin (according to oral information from descendants). All the beauty and ingenuity of the Yaoure masks lie in the fact that the power of the spirits of the wild world seems to be contained in a composition with delicate features. The expression of appeasement, signified by the half-closed eyes with heavy lids, coexists with zoomorphic attributes - ears and curved horns. The reflection of the sculptor Yaouré Kuakudili, which he gave to the ethnologist Hans Himmelheber, applies perfectly to this beautiful example: the state of mind of a mask is expressed through the shape of the mouth. The animality of a mask is expressed through the shape of the mouth. The mouth is carried forward to the extreme, like a beak, or even a snout, and we are witnesses to this process of transfiguration, of symbiosis between the world of Men and the Animal world.
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Yaoure mask, Ivory Coast Wood H. 37,5 cm Provenance : Paul and Jacqueline Canfère collection acquired from Jean-Michel Huguenin (according to oral information from descendants). All the beauty and ingenuity of the Yaoure masks lie in the fact that the power of the spirits of the wild world seems to be contained in a composition with delicate features. The expression of appeasement, signified by the half-closed eyes with heavy lids, coexists with zoomorphic attributes - ears and curved horns. The reflection of the sculptor Yaouré Kuakudili, which he gave to the ethnologist Hans Himmelheber, applies perfectly to this beautiful example: the state of mind of a mask is expressed through the shape of the mouth. The animality of a mask is expressed through the shape of the mouth. The mouth is carried forward to the extreme, like a beak, or even a snout, and we are witnesses to this process of transfiguration, of symbiosis between the world of Men and the Animal world.
