Bundu mask

Mende Bundu mask

provenance Brooklyn-Gross collection. Price on request only.

this mask is published in the Eurantica catalogue

Red painted nr 70. 152.3 inside
and a handwritten etiquette Dr.Gross
ht. 14 1/4 in 35 cm. photos: Sylvie Verhaeghe

Mende Mask request of availability

African Carved Wood Helmet Mask 
Sierra Leone, Mende, of typical form with elaborate coiffure.

Provenance: Brooklyn Museum who got it from the collection of American sculptor Chaim Gross. The Bundu masks of the Mende is one of the seldom type of masks made by women and used to educate women and celebrate the feminity.

Probable age: end XIXth – Begin XXth.

References from the Who’s Who in African Art:

Gross, Chaim (1904-1991) & Renee (Renee and Chaim Gross Foundation)
Artist/coll. New York City, born in Galicia. Sculptor, who started collecting in the end of the thirties, his enthusiasm has influenced many others to begin collecting. Their collection of more than a thousand objects will eventually be bequeathed to one or more public institutions. Expo cat.: The Sculptor's Eye: The African Art Collection of Mr. & Mrs. Chaim Gross. Washington,D.C. 1976.see also

Chaim Gross. Sculptor’s Eye. Sotheby’s-May 15, 2009

 

Crowninshield, Frank (1872-1947)
Coll. New York. Editor of Vanity Fair for two decades and then advisor to Vogue, he was an important American taste-maker. Published with Covarrubias "Negro Drawings" in 1930s. Expo cat.: African Negro Art. From the collection of Frank Crowninshield. Brooklyn Museum, 20 March-25 April, 1937. 
His collection has been dispersed through sale to a number of private collections and museums, with the greatest number being in the collection of American sculptor Chaim Gross.

The Mende tribe
Location: Southern Sierra Leone 

Population: 700,000 

Language: Mende (Mande) 

Neighboring Peoples: Bullom-Sherbro, Vai, Temne, Gola 

Types of Art: Most Mende art is associated with initiation and healing and includes wooden masks, twin figures, and medicine objects. Utilitarian objects such as heddle pulleys are decorated with carved heads or other beautiful designs. 

History: The Mende language is closely related to the Mande language group, indicating that the Mende migrated from the Sudan to the north. The oral traditions of the Mende tell of a peaceful migration into the area that may have spanned the period from 200 to 1500 A.D. Cultural and physical differences among the Mende suggest that immigrants may have originated from more than one source. This could also be a result of intermarriage with the peoples who had already lived in the area. Artistic traditions link them closely to the coastal Bullom peoples, a phenomenon which most likely resulted from the Mende borrowing ideas they found to be useful in their own society. 

Economy: The Mende are traditionally rice farmers who also produce yams and cassava as staple crops. Cocoa, ginger, groundnuts (peanuts), and palm oil are the primary cash crops. 

Political Systems: There are two main educational societies among the Mende which are divided by gender. They are the Poro, for men, and the Sande, for women, and are open to anyone in the community. They have earned the misnomer secret societies because some of their actions are hidden from the eyes of uninitiated children and members of the opposite sex. Their existence and purpose is known to all members of society. The primary role of both is to teach individuals about the expectations of the community. Such organizations function to institute community morals and act as a very efficient means of social control. 

Religion: Ngewo is the creator and ruler of the universe and is assisted by the ancestors and other spirits (Nga-fa). Both are appealed to for protection and fertility for the community and the individual. All manifestation of the spirit, including the masks that are performed for religious ceremonies, are considered Nga-fa. The masks are carved to be aesthetically pleasing to the spirits. It is hoped that through its continual use the spirits will agree to embody the dancer during the ceremony. Interestingly, the Bondu helmet mask, which is associated with the Sande society and is found throughout Sierra Leone and western Liberia among numerous ethnic groups, is the only known masking tradition in Africa exclusively worn by women. Although women throughout Africa often act as intermediaries between the spirit world and the earthly world, there are no other known examples of women using masks.

Text Credits: Christopher D. Roy, Professor of the History of Art  The University of Iowa http://www.uiowa.edu/~africart
photo credits: Sylvie Verhaeghe. (click thumb to see larger)

Image before restoration - The eyes where slightly damaged by insects.  .        

Painted Museum number  inside the mask and the Gross etiquette

 Price: on request