IDNO

P.71393.GIJ

Description

An Ibibio mask carved of wood. The mask depicts a human face and is angular in shape. The eyes are slit, long nose, open mouth with teeth, high cheekbones, large eliptical ears, and incised markings around the ears and chin. Around the forehead is a piece of twine and on top of the head is a square caved section representing the hair? It is made of highly polished darkened wood.

Place

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

Cultural Affliation

Ibibio; Otoro

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: A similar mask taken along with other Ibibio masksis shown i in Plate 81, Jones, 1984, p.175. The caption reads “Kwa Ibo masks.”

Context: Jones devotes a chapter to The Anang (Ibibio) and other Ibibio styles. The style which is usually called Ibibio was concentrated in a single local area, that of the Anang, who were probably the most gifted artistically of all Eastern Nigerina people. Masks and figures in this style were carved in adjacent Eastern Ibibio and Ohuhu Ibo areas, but the greaet majority and certainly the finest were made in the Anang area and by the twentieth century they were being made in considerable numbers: For the superiority of these Anang masks was accepted throughout the Ibo and Ibibio countries and Anang (Ibibio) masks and carvings were distributed to most parts of the Eastern Region... The Ibibio style was only one of a number of styles found in the Anang area. It was in this area that Eastern Nigerian face masks attained their greatest development. They were heart-shaped, oval or rectangular in form and they could be carved on circular or on rectangular panels. they could have additional smaller faces carved on the forehea, on a superstructure above it or on panels hingd to its sides. While normally human in form, they could on occasion be in animal form or ina combination of human, animal or bird features in order to horrify and strike terror into the beholder. But another type of Anang mask achieved this even more successfully by depicting faces ravaged by disfiguring tropical diseases (for instance, rodent ulcers, gangosa, nodular leprosy). These ‘pathological’ masks were peculiar to the Ibibio.P.71320.GIJ to P.71399.GIJ were kept in box 3, now numbered C303/.

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 19/11/2007]