Rainbow Mask

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Rainbow Mask

Artist Baule Peoples (African)

Artistor Yaure Peoples (African)

Place of OriginIvory Coast (Côte d'Ivoire)

DateEarly to mid-20th century

Dimensions19 × 10 1/8 × 5 in. (48.3 × 25.7 × 12.7 cm)

MediumWood, pigment, metal plates, metal tacks.

ClassificationSculpture

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

Object number

1973.12

On View

Toledo Museum of Art (2445 Monroe Street), Gallery, 01

Label TextGbagba is a masquerade that mirrors the human world. The masks appear in a sequence that includes human types, animals, and natural phenomena such as the moon or a rainbow, as is probably depicted by this mask. The role of these masks is to “warm the dance space” in preparation for the portrait masks that follow. The form and style of this elegant mask suggest that it may be the work of an artist who sculpted masks in the courtyard of the National Museum of Ivory Coast in the 1940s and 1950s.Published References

"African Art," Toledo Museum of Art Museum News, vol. 16, no. 2, 1973, p. 35, repr. fig. 7.

"Recent accessions," Art Quarterly, vol. 16, no. 1, Spring 1974, p. 99, repr. p. 107.

Roberts, Mary Nooter, Facing Africa: The African Art Collection of the Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, 1998, pp.32-33, repr. (col.).

Comparative ReferencesSee also Leuzinger, Elsy, Africa, the Art of Negro Peoples, New York, Crown Publishers, Inc., 1960, p. 109, pl. 19, p. 108.

cf. Fagg, William, Tribes and Forms in African Art, New York, Tudor Publishing Co., 1965, pp. 16-17, (ill.).

cf. Trowell, Margaret and Hans Nevermann, African and Oceanic Art, New York, Abrams, 1968, pp. 30-31, ill.

cf. Leiris, Michel and Jacqueline Delange, African Art, New York, Golden Press, 1968, p. 19, pl. 18.

cf. Plass, Margaret, The African Image, The Toledo Museum of Art, 1959, nos. 43-44.

cf. Wassing, Rene, African Art, Its Background and Tradition, New York, Abrams, 1968, p. 131, pl. XVIII, p. 132.