1. Masking Traditions: Honoring our mothers

2. The Religious Landscape

3. Beta Madhane Alemi, Lalibela, largest of rock cut churches, has a nave and four aisles and surrounded by a colonnade of plain square pillars—ca. 13 th century

4. Djenne Mosque, Djenne, Mali, adobe bricks, Completed in 1907 after the original 14 th century model

5. Igbo Mbari House to Ala, the Earth Goddess, Adobe and wood, 20 th century

6. Nkisi Nkonde, Kongo Peoples, Zaire Wood, cord, iron, nails, feathers, pigment Natural fibers 20th century h. 83 cm

7. Ifa divination Tray—Opon Ifa, Fon Peoples, Republic of Benin, Wood, Late 16 th - Early 17 th century

8. Today there are well over 100 million people who practice or profess the Yoruba Religious Traditions Santeria—Cuba, Dominican Republic, Venezuela, Puerto Rico etc Candomble in Brazil 201 Gods and Goddesses known as Orisa

9. The mask is …

10. Figure with Mask like Head, Rock Painting, Tassili, 10,000 BP

11. African Art and the Modernist Engagement

12. Pablo Picasso, Les Demoiselles d’Avignon Oil on canvas, 1907

13. “the mask weren’t just like any pieces of sculpture…Not at all. They were magic things…The Negro pieces were intercesseurs, mediators… I always looked at fetishes...” --Pablo Picasso

14. Pablo Picasso, Les Demoiselle D’Avignon (detail) 1907, oil on canvas Mbuya (sickness) mask, Pende, Zaire, Polychrome wood, 20 th century

15. Fang Mask, Gabon, polychrome wood, 20 th century Mask, Republic of the Congo, Painted wood Late 19 th century Pablo Picasso, Detail of Les Demoiselle D’Avignon, 1907, Oil on canvas

16. The mask is the mediating force at that delicate intersection between the real and the imagined; the concrete and the imperceptible; The serious and the playful; the whimsical and the terrifying; the living and the dead 1.Ancestral veneration/worship; mediation 2.Rites of passage—education 3.Social control—punitive; intervention; social harmony 4.Entertainment—humor and satire.

17. Ancestor Veneration

18. Oba William Ayeni, Orangun of Ila wearing the Great Crown (Ade Nla) with beaded Veil, Yoruba Peoples, Nigeria 20 th cent

19. Chiwara Masquerades in performance during the agricultural cycle, Bamana Peoples, Mali

20. Crest Mask, Chiwara, Bamana, Mali Wood, 20 th century

21. Bobo (Butterfly) mask, Burkina Faso (Upper Volta), Painted Wood, cloth, 20 th century Members of the Do in performance Dossi, Burkina Faso (Upper Volta) Wood, natural pigments, grass fibers 20 th century

22. Dje (antelope) masquerade in performance, Dabuzra, Cote D’Ivoire

23. Rites of Passage : Initiation & Education

24. Sowei Headdress, Gola/Vai Peoples, Liberia and Sierra Leone, Wood, 20 th century

25. Sowei Headdress, Sande society, (Gola, Vai Peoples) Liberia Sierra Leone Wood, pigment 20 th century

26. Boys’ initiation, Gabon

27. Fire spitter mask (kponugu), Senufo, Ivory Coast Wood, 20 th century

28. Social Control

29. Gelede Headdress with two pythons attempting to swallow a tortoise Yoruba, Nigeria, wood, pigment, 20 th century

30. Ijele Mask at the 2 nd Burial Ceremony, Achalla, Nigeria, Mixed media, 20 th century

31. Yoruba Egungun Masquerade, mixed media, 21 st century

32. Egungun ensemble Yoruba Peoples, Nigeria Cloth, wood, metal 20 th cent.

33. Egungun masquerade in Dance motion Yoruba Peoples, Nigeria/Benin, 20 th cent.

34. Humor and Satire

35. Gelede masked performers, Yoruba Peoples, Ketu, Democratic republic of Benin

36. Masquerades, Yoruba, Nigeria, wood, cotton, 20 th century

37. Parodying the Colonial “Other” (Egungun) Masquerade Yoruba, Nigeria wood, animal hide, cotton, pigments 20 th century

38. Diasporic Transformations

39. Egungun ensemble honoring Sango, Oyotunji, Sheldon, South Carolina, May 26, 2014. Photograph by Bolaji Campbell.

40. Nick Cave American, b. 1956 Soundsuit, 2006 Found knit sweaters, socks, drift wood, dryer lint, and paint Helen M. Danforth Acquisition Fund 2007.11

41. Wole Lagunju Marilyn Monroe and my African Sensibilities Acrylic on canvas 2013