Mask: Ngontang

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Mask: Ngontang

Artist Fang Peoples (African)

Place of OriginGabon

Date1875-1900

DimensionsH. 17 in. (43.2 cm), W. 11 1/2 in. (29.2 cm).

MediumCarved wood with pigment

ClassificationSculpture

Credit LinePurchased with funds from the Libbey Endowment, Gift of Edward Drummond Libbey

Object number

1958.16

Not on View

Label TextThis mask is derived from a type called ngontang, once used by Fang peoples to celebrate the visitation of spirits upon the living. The whiteness of the mask—associated with death, otherworldliness, and states of transition—represented the otherness of the spirit world for the Fang peoples. This particular example, however, was probably never used by Fang people themselves. The mask was made before 1900 as part of a group of masks for sale to foreigners, and then came into the possession of two early Modernist European artists, Maurice Vlaminck and André Derain, whose work was influenced by African sculpture in transforming and enduring ways (look for works by Pablo Picasso, Amedeo Modigliani and other European and American artists influenced by African art in neighboring galleries).Published References

"Entering the Public Domain: Toledo," Art News, vol. 58, no. 3, May 1959, p. 37.

"Accessions of American and Canadian Museums, October-December 1958," The Art Quarterly, vol. 22, 1959, p. 83, repr. p. 79.

Robbins, Warren M., African Art in American Collections, New York, 1966, repr. fig. 235, p. 181.

Rich, Evelyn Jones, Africa: Tradition and Change, New York, 1972, repr. p. 202.

"African Art," Toledo Museum of Art Museum News, vol. 16, no. 2, 1973, p. 40, repr. fig. 12.

Sotheby Parke Bernet, African, Oceanic and Pre-Columbian Art, New York, May 26, 1978, no. 267.

The Toledo Museum of Art: A Guide to the Collections, Toledo, 1976, repr. p. 91.

Alloway, Lawrence, et al., The Pictographs of Adolph Gottlieb, New York, 1994, p. 35, fig. II-3, p. 32.

Roberts, Mary Nooter, Facing Africa: The African Art Collection of the Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, 1998, pp. 58-59, repr. (col.).

Duncan, Sally Anne, Otto Wittmann: Museum Man for All Seasons, Toledo, 2001, repr. (col.) p. 18.

Exhibition History

Toledo Museum of Art, The African Image, 1959, no. 117, repr. p. 23.

Comparative ReferencesSee also Willett, Frank, African Art, an Introduction, New York, Praeger, 1971, p. 37, fig. 22. (This mask is not ours, cf. memorandum from William Hutton dated May 27, 1960.)