IDNO

N.13119.GIJ

Description

Full length portrait of a masquerader wearing a woven, sack-cloth costume, a small face mask with a vertical protrusion, and a raffia headdress. He is holding a bundle of tied sticks. In the background are buildings and a crowd.

Physical Condition: Slight yellowing of negative.

Place

W Africa; Nigeria; Eastern Nigeria; Cross River; Obobia village

Cultural Affliation

Igbo [historically Ibo]

Named Person

Photographer

Jones, Gwilliam Iwan (known as G.I.)

Collector / Expedition

Date

1932 - 1938

Collection Name

Jones Collection

Source

Jones, Gwilliam Iwan (known as G.I.)

Format

Film Negative Black & White

Primary Documentation

Other Information

This negative was kept in a film storage album labelled “Masks & Plays - Nkporo.” by G. I. Jones, and numbered “C11/” by the cataloguer.

Publication: See Jones.G.I. 1939a, ‘Ogbugukere Ihuaba’, Nigerian Field, Vol. VIII, No.3,1939.

Context: In relation to the various types of masks found in the Ada Item area, Jones discusses that some masks were either very stylised human, goat and antelope faces or were completely abstract. The most common of the latter was white, red and black arrangement of an oval face with the features reduced to a vertical row of three projecting cylinders surmounted by a knifelike crest and suggestive of the prow of a Venetian gondola. (Jones, 1984, p.211)

Bibliographical Reference: Jones, G.I., 1984. The Art of Eastern Nigeria (Cambridge University Press)

This catalogue record has been updated with the support of the Getty Grant Program Two. [Alicia Fentiman 23/10/2007]

Publication: The photograph has been digitised for the European Collected Library of Artistic Performance (ECLAP) and is accessible on the portal http://www.eclap.eu/drupal/. [SG 30/10/2012]