IDNO

P.71389.GIJ

Description

A carved wooden Ekpo face mask in a rectangular facial shape with square holes for eyes, a square nose and zig-zag incised marks to resemble the mouth. On top of the mask is a rimmed square supported by three wooden peg-like supports. quare holes for eyes.

Object documentation photograph; mask photographed in front of a plain backdrop.

Place

W Africa; Nigeria; Eastern Nigeria

Cultural Affliation

Ibibio

Named Person

Photographer

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

Collector / Expedition

Date

circa 1930 - 1939

Collection Name

Jones collection

Source

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

Format

Print Black & White

Primary Documentation

Other Information

This negative was kept in a film storage album labelled “IBO & OW WALL” by G. I. Jones, and numbered “C12/” by the cataloguer.

Publication: Reproduced in Jones.G.I. 1984, as Figure 44, p.131, with the caption “Ekpo mask, abstract mode”

Context:
Jones provides a detailed description of the masks and the costumes, he writes, “Ekpo masks, like those of northern Ibo, could be divided into ‘beautiful’ and ‘fierce’. The beautiful ones were said to be white, though most of those collected by Murray and myself were black like the fierce ones. But this was due to the conditions under which they had been preserved. Before they were used again, according to our informants, they would have had to be repainted. Most Ibibio masks, until the 1930s, were stained and polished black, in the case of the fierce ones, or coloured white or white and light brown with local pigments. The more modern ones were coloured with imported and mainly oil paints in most of the colours that found favour in other parts of Eastern Nigeria.The finest and oldest of the Anang (Ibibio) masks were used in the Ekpo masquerades, which tried to emphasise their timeless antiquity both in their masks and in their costumes; these remained the traditional ones of raffia fringes, cloaks and skirts which ended at the knees leaving the arms and legs of the actor bare and free for active movement. The Ekpo characters, particularly the fierce ones (and these were in the majority), were intended to inspire respect and admiration but were heavily laden with fear and mystery; to heighten these effects their raffia costumes were dyed black.” (Jones, 1984, pp. 182-183).

In relation to the mask in the photograph he writes that, “the carving bears no obvious resemblance to the human or animal form it represents” (Jones, 1984 p.130)

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 6/11/2007]