12 - Masque Kpelie, Senoufo, Côte d’Ivoire

Masque Kpelie, Senoufo, Côte d’Ivoire Wood, natural pigments H. 30.5 cm; W. 18.5 cm Height with base: 43.5 cm A rare and beautiful Kpelie mask of genuine artistic creativity and undoubted antiquity, documented in situ. Its aesthetic value and boldness—evident in both its balance and the skillful arrangement of its forms—are matched by its heritage value. Crafted by a master sculptor, likely in the late 19th or early 20th century, it embodies a stylistic benchmark in the art history of the Senufo. Within the Kpelie corpus, this example stands out for the rare finesse of its form and the supreme harmony of its refined features, whose internalized expression lends the face a singular serenity. Beyond this gentleness and the delicacy of its modeling lies a more instinctive tension: the lateral and lower projections, with their angular contours and almost animal-like spread, suggest a subtle bestiality. Provenance - Collected in situ by the current owner in December 1971, a few kilometers from Korogho Littérature Reproduced in: Arts Premiers d’Afrique noire – Plastique et langage, no. 11, 1982 Further reading: Robert J. Goldwater, *Senufo: Sculpture from West Africa*, New York, Museum of Primitive Art, 1964 Anita J. Glaze, *Art and Death in a Senufo Village*, Bloomington, Indiana University Press, 1981 Anita J. Glaze, “Dialectics of Gender in Senufo Masquerades,” in *African Arts*, 19/3, 1986, pp. 30–39, 82 Anita J. Glaze, “Senufo: Kpeliye’e Mask,” in Jean-Paul Barbier (ed.), Art of Côte d’Ivoire: from the collections of the Barbier-Mueller Museum, Geneva, Barbier-Mueller Museum, 1993, vol. II, p. 11, cat. 1 Timothy F. Garrard, “Face Masks from the Senufo Region,” in Id., pp. 86–105 Till Förster, “Senufo Masking and the Art of Poro,” in *African Arts*, 26/1, 1993, pp. 30–41, 101