117 - Important Adouma mask, Gabon.

Important Adouma mask, Gabon. Carved from wood, featuring a strongly elongated face, with features reduced to their most essential expression. Beneath a high, rounded forehead are two narrow eye slits, a protruding nose, and an openwork mouth, while the face tapers gradually toward a pointed tip. The remarkable red-and-white polychromy, arranged in alternating zones, emphasizes the geometric rigor of the composition and lends this sculpture a striking modernity of form. The interior retains abundant traces of carving as well as old collection labels (J. Lecluse Collection, Liège). This mask bears particularly close similarities to two Adouma examples that have appeared at public auctions: Sotheby’s Paris, October 29, 2018, lot 202 (48 cm), and Giquello & Associés, Paris, September 27, 2024, lot 206 (50 cm). Including base Height: 47.5 cm