Ijo/ Ijaw mask, Nigeria Wood, blue and white pigments Height: 61 cm Provenance: Michel Gosse Collection, Caen/Paris Michel Gosse Collection, Caen/Paris Helmut Zake Collection, Heidelberg Spanish private collection Belonging to the Sakapu initiation society, this mask, in reference to the water spirit, owu, appeared to celebrate. Among the limited corpus of Ijo masks, this one stands out for the rarity of its composition, its resolutely cubist construction, "one of the boldest and most accomplished of all African sculpture" (Paulme, Les Sculptures de l'Afrique noire, 1956, p. 76). Carved from dense wood, its highly stylized features carved in champlevé, its forms reduced to the essential, its pure lines and curves, accentuate and sublimate the intensity of its expressiveness. Its powerful volumes are skilfully articulated in a play of planes and projections in space, giving the face a striking dynamic and rhythm. Inscribed on a flat, vertical base, the face with its rounded oval forehead emerges in champlever. Its imposing triangular nose, with flared nostrils, is linked to the clearly marked superciliary arches, forming the junction between the planes of the face. The subtle alternation between concave and convex forms intensifies the power of the gaze, with its cylindrical eyes projected forward. His thick, rectangular mouth in relief lends him a certain ferocity.