IDNO

P.71391.GIJ

Description

Portrait of an Ekpo mask characher, wearing a face mask (representation of a face with ears, nose, protruding cheeks, almond shapled slits for eyes, open mouth with carved white? teeth and whiskers on cheeks), with plant fibres covering his head and torso. Holding up a machete in one hand. The face mask is of highly polished darkened wood.

Place

W Africa; Nigeria; Eastern Nigeria; near Ikot Ekpene; Ikot Abia village

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

P.71320.GIJ to P.71399.GIJ were kept in box 3, now numbered C303/.

Publication:
The same mask, but slightly different photograph, is shown in Plate, 37 “Ekpo Figure” in Jones, 198,4 p. 121, plate 37.

Context: Jones writes about the carver of this mask, “ The artist who carved the mask in Figure 37 was an Ibibio farmer whose mains specialisation was the painting of Ngwomo frescoes.” (p. 123) He also 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).

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]