Baga migration to the safe haven of the swamp region Dina and Michael Weiss Collection of African Art | 57352 Baga people, Katako, the Republic of , ca. 1940 | Wood, cm x 34 x 32 96 Shoulder mask/headdress, possibly of the zigurin-wonde ("young bride”) type Nimba Museum B87.0133 to American Friends of the Israel Gift of Ernst Anspach, New York, century | Wood, 40 x 80.5 x 22 cm Guinea, late 19th – early 20th Baga people, the Republic of Family shrine figure ( elek/a-tshol)

Baga Art and Senegal Baga migration to the safe haven of the swamp region the Great Mother

The Gambia Mali

of African Art | 57373 Guinea, ca. 1940 | Wood, | Dina and Michael cm Weiss x 24 x 25 72 Collection Hand-held dance figure ( tiyambo/Yombofissa ) | Baga people, the Republic of

Guinea Bissau Dina and Michael Weiss Collection of African Art | 57359 Wood and paint, 85 x 35 cm A- 0 73 bamp bird head-crest | Baga people, the Republic of Guinea, ca. 1930 1 a g a B ' highlands B ag a 1 6 0 Baga 0 Guinea The Great Mother Who are the Baga? The Katako Hoard Nimba Shoulder of Baga society, and is Elekel (sing. elek) figures combine other important The great Nimba mask at the heart The name “Baga” is derived This exhibition marks the first therefore believed to be the bird and human features, and community leaders. Masks and of this exhibition represents the from a term in the language time that the eleven Katako Headdresses strongest adversary of evil were created for the worship of most important form of Baga art. of the dominant Susu culture masterworks seen here have been The best-known of the forces and sorcery which the supreme deities Kanu and his A-tshol is a long-

Côte d’lvoire The largest masks produced in meaning “people of the Africa revealed to the world. Brought out Baga masks are the threaten a community’s wife Somtup, together with lineage beaked bird, most

Western Africa, they are among seaside.” Residing in what is Liberia of the sacred Katako forest after Nimba, after the female well-being. It also appears ancestors. They are housed in the likely a pelican that is African art’s most renowned ritual today the Republic of Guinea, being hidden for over sixty years, entity of the same name. at funeral ceremonies family homes of villagers in an the manifestation of

objects. Symbolizing peace and the Baga number about Studio RenD they survived both iconoclasm The mask depicts a for important members effort to appease the ancestors and a spirit. According to benevolence, the Nimba mask’s 34,000 and are believed to have what was left of the Baga Art. Michael Weiss’s work in and Jihad. While masquerades, woman at the height of the community. The as a center for sacrificial offerings Baga myth, a fisherman spiritual powers bring the Baga originated from the Fouta Djallon, traditions. The ensuing three Guinea-Conakry allowed him dances, and rituals are maintained of her power – fertile, snake headdress was often in exchange for protection against encountered this bird people together in celebration. Guinea’s interior highlands. The decades of iconoclasm – lasting to dedicate the past decade to today as symbols of Baga unity, the intelligent, and pure of heart. Her identified as a rainbow, evil spirits and witchcraft. The dry a number of times, French colonialists collected Baga were persistently driven until 1984 – resulted in the locating what may very well be practices in the sacred wood have posture suggests confidence and Zigurin-wonde (“young bride”) which the Baga associate harvest season heralds ceremonies, and asked the spirit to these colossal masks, bringing from their land by neighboring destruction of secret initiation the last remaining examples of ended. The Baga community has fearlessness. Her breasts are full headdresses of this kind are with essential themes such community festivities, and male accompany him back them back to France for display. cultures and Islamic oppression societies and their sacred objects. ritual artifacts made by a culture aged, with the young generation but pendulant; she is a mother owned by young men and used as life and death, and the initiations during which elek to his village to reside The carved Nimba masks with until the fourteenth century, However, ritual art and its secrets whose ethnicity, together with seeking its fortune elsewhere. The who has nursed her children who solely for entertainment in perpetuation of lineages. heads are taken out and danced. there. Eventually the their exaggerated forms, unusual when they finally settled in the never entirely disappeared from its artistic production, is quickly last of the remaining Baga elders are now grown. On her face are performances, particularly at Elek heads are also used during spirit-bird agreed, and thus figures on its back, usually two proportions, and stylized coastal swamplands of western Baga life, thanks to Baga women, disappearing. have decided that after performing scarifications representing grains weddings. The performer wears with the Baga idealized funerals of lineage elders and every Baga home has an A-tshol, smaller birds and two female decoration served both to inspire Guinea. Throughout the centuries whose cults were not targeted for a final act of generosity for the of rice – the main Baga crop – it on top of his head, grasping the representation of light | Dina and Michael 24 cm Weiss Collection of African Art | 57361 Male initiation snake mask ( bansonyi a symbol of the life-giving spirit figures. It is used on festive and influence modernist artists they resolutely maintained their destruction during this period. It community, the old spirits can be and symbols of fecundity and leg-like projections at the base of skin. Yombofissa means of the water. occasions and celebrations such as Picasso, Matisse, and traditional ways, even after the was they who secretly maintained set free to seek new audiences. abundance. Carefully positioned the mask and leaving the figure’s “beautiful hair,” and she marking the end of initiation rites. Giacometti. The Nimba is credited arrival of nineteenth-century tribal wisdom and ritual carvings. The Baga distinguished crescent shapes, symbolic of breasts exposed. The costume is indeed has elaborately Long-beaked birds such as the Once exclusively featured in sacred with bringing Western attention French Roman Catholic colonialists Baga ceremonial masquerades | 57351 Art African of Collection Weiss Michael and Dina cm x 37 x 32 98 | Wood, 1930 ca. Guinea, of Republic the A-tekan between ceremonial lunar cycles and bodies of water, completed with the addition of a plaited hair from which pelican encountered rituals, these masks gradually

to the remote Baga culture and its who discouraged indigenous resurfaced, and were resumed objects, called tolom – represent the power of her skirt made from palm fiber. The horns emerge, hinting at by fishermen were B17.1824African Art Wood, | Gift of the Dina and Michael cm paint,Weiss x 19 metal, 48 Collection of Double-pelican headdress | Baga people, the Republic of Guinea, mid-20th century prolific artistic tradition. ritual. Despite oppression, Baga legally as an affirmation of tribal women's society maternity figure with child meaning “secret” – which femininity. smaller-scale pefet Nimba the spiritual essence of considered a spiritual

practices continued to flourish. identity, with the rise to power of were used by the initiated Dina and Michael Weiss Collection of African Art | 57353 Guinea, ca. 1940 | Wood, cm 74 x 34 x 34 Nimba shoulder mask ( pefet ) | Baga people, Katako, the Republic of mask is used in dances this carving. The young manifestation of the Modifications in a more democratic government. elders, and those called and performances during girl’s arms support her power of the water. B72.0178 Jerusalem Museum, Israel The to Zurich, Bloch, Georges of Gift Pablo Picasso ceremonial art reflect Today the Baga are predominantly powolsene – meaning “toy” the funerary rites of breasts as a sign both of ) | Baga people, the Republic of Guinea, 1963 | Wood and paint, x 170 As such, pelicans or the incorporation of new Muslim. – used by youths. Those community elders. worship and seduction. fish-eagles feature religious ideologies and used for entertainment prominently in the

, Head political change. After This exhibition focuses on Baga were painted in symbolic Named after the Bansonyi masks and headdresses gaining independence art, reflected through masks, colors and danced Masks and men’s secret association, used by the Baga. The , 1933 | Etching and crayon, 176 x 155 mm mm x 155 176 crayon, and | Etching , 1933 from the French in 1958, carvings, and sculptures, some according to a strict code. Headdresses this mask is brought fish-eagle was believed Guinea was taken over kept hidden and preserved in the The Nimba and sibondel The tiyambo mask out from the sacred to embody a spirit by an Islamic-Marxist sacred forest for decades, while masks, for example, are represents a young girl forest during male whose presence bodes government. Surviving others were created in the mid- to Katako, people, | Baga considered powolsene and approaching puberty, about coming-of-age rites, imminent death or icons of the Baga’s late-twentieth century for secular are meant to appear in to undergo initiation in immediately preceding disaster. animistic religion were village gatherings, celebrating public, while objects such preparation for marriage. the circumcision destroyed, practices personal or communal events. as those discovered in the She is wearing the typical ceremony. The bansonyi The realistically were outlawed as part The main body of the works Katako hoard were most bracelets on her forearm mask/headdress houses designed bird-shaped of a ‘’demystification’’ exhibited here are on loan likely considered tolom and belts of beads around the a-Mantsho-na-Tshol – a-bamp mask/ program, and Guinean from the Dina and Michael and meant to be seen only her waist. Her body is “master of medicine” – the headdress typically nationalism replaced Weiss Collection of African by the initiated. painted red in accordance supreme spiritual entity depicts groupings of A-tekan Wood, Pre-initiation female child figure | Baga people, Katako, the Republic of Guinea, ca. 1935 ca. 1935 | Wood Dina and Michael Weiss Collection of African Art | 57369 85 x 24 x 37 cm x 24 x 37 85 women's society female figure | Baga people, Katako, the Republic of Guinea, paint, Male initiation drum ( timba ) | Baga people, the Republic of Guinea, ca. 1944 Wood, animal skin, , 88 x 25 x 34 cm x 34 x 25 88 102 x 36 x 36 cm x 36 x 36 102 | Dina and Michael Weiss Collection of African Art | 57370

| Dina and Michael Weiss Collection of African Art | became objects used for Female initiation figures uncircumcised male organ sibondel is an example of masks entertainment. are adorned with bracelets, with the head and face of the created in a period of modernity. a necklace, and a special Nimba – the Great Mother – It incorporates what appears to Banda masks are worn beaded belt, and wear renders him neither male nor be a hare’s head with long ears, horizontally on the sandals and a typical female. whose stylized tail emerges from head and represent initiate’s skirt or cache- Although Nimba depicts the the back. The figures carried Nimba a supernatural being sex. This figure’s hair is quintessential woman, and within the box are four Muslim that has the power to elaborately braided and her has been described by scholar dignitaries in typical white caps Baga Art and protect the community. head is encircled with fish, Fredric Lamp as the idea and two female Baga figures the Great Mother The wood and raffia a symbol of fertility and of “beauty, comportment, painted red to indicate light skin. mask incorporates abundance. righteousness, dignity, and Danced principally at marriages, an elongated human social duty,” the existence of 66365 the sibondel symbolized Baga face, the jaws of a both female and male Nimba ingenuity and survival instincts at crocodile, the horns performance, he spins dizzily with figures implies that the ideals a time when the Islamic Malinke

Dina and Michael Weiss Collection of African Art | 57375 Banda of an antelope, the body of the headdress held high; he then Women’s Secret Male Pre-Initiation represented by the Nimba political and religious threat was a serpent, and the tail of twirls it in a series of figure-eights Societies Figure cross genders. beginning to take effect. mask | Baga/Nalu people, the Republic of Guinea, ca. 1955 | Wood and paint, a chameleon; the positive and plunges it to the ground, in Women’s societies gained strength This figure represents an attributes of each animal the end returning the mask to his and importance during periods uninitiated young boy, although Drum/Timba enhance the power of the head. All this is done despite their of iconoclasm, as they were never the combination of his distinctly In Baga society, drums such mask, and a masked dancer hefty size and weight. targeted for destruction. as this were used by adult males Wood, Pre-initiation male child figure | Baga people, the Republic of Guinea, ca. 1900 performs a complicated The A-tekan is an exclusive to American Friends of the Israel Museum, of in memory their son, Jordan M. Wright | B08.1058 fulfilling important roles in male

dance imitating the cult for mothers, actively cm x 34 x 32 79 initiation rituals. Made from a Dina and Michael Weiss Collection of African Art | 57371 Wood, Young female initiate figure | Baga people, Katako, the Republic of Guinea, ca. 1950 characteristics of these initiating girls into single piece of wood, it is supported

animals. Banda masks cm x 33 x 35 102 womanhood. The main by an elegantly carved equine appear in fertility requirement for admission figure. In , the horse is rituals, after the rice to the A-tekan societies is | Gift of the Faith-dorian and Martin Wright Family, New York, a prestige symbol. During the late harvests, during the dry motherhood, which was nineteenth to the mid-twentieth

season, and at funerals, viewed as a woman’s main century, the Baga were introduced Nimba (The Great Mother) shoulder mask | Baga people, the Republic of Guinea, ca. 1935 Wood, 111 x 43 x 35 cm | Dina and Michael Weiss Collection of African Art | 57356 invoking the spirits of objective in life. to the horse by the French colonial nature. administrators for whom it A woman who has never was a means of transportation. The Baga masquerader given birth cannot be Associated with power, the horse Nimba: Baga Art and the Great Mother Selected Bibliography manipulates the considered an adult became a symbol of strength and The Faith-dorian and Martin Wright Gallery of David Berliner, Baga Memoirs Religieuses. Musee x 47 cm x 41 172 banda mask with female, and thus will control, and therefore horse figures African Art | Edmond and Lily Safra Fine Arts Wing Barbie-Meuller, Geneva, 2013. awe-inspiring not be granted the rights are used to decorate the property December 2019 – December 2020 Marie-Yvonne Curtis, The Nimba Headdress: Art Ritual and History of the Baga and Nalu People of Guinea. dexterity invoking the and status of an initiated of community heads and elders. Curator: Dorit Shafir Museum Studies, Art Institution of Chicago, 1997 Curatorial assistance: Ruth Weinstein movements of different member. A-tekan remains

Exhibition design: Rona Chernica Curtis (ibid), Baga: Visions of Africa 5 (Continents animals, including active today, whereas men’s Sibondel Leaflet design: Debora Pollak Edition), 2018. undulating serpents, cults have disappeared; The sibondel box mask was Editing: Sarah Sorek Frederic Lamp, Art of the Baga, A Drama of Cultural Map: © Studio RenD Reinvention. The Museum of African Art & Pretsel, soaring birds, and foot- thus women are credited created for Baga ceremonies in Headdress or box mask (sibondel) | Baga people, the Republic of Guinea, early 20th century Illustrations: © Nkai Sidimi New York, 1996. stamping bulls. In the with maintaining Baga the 1930s. Reflecting a period of Wood, paint, cotton textile, 117 x 63 x 59 cm | Gift of the Dina and Michael Weiss Collection Photographs of Baga objects: © Dorian Gottlieb of African Art | B14.1948 Ramon Sarro’, “Baga Identity: Religious Movements main spectacle of the traditions. social and religious change, the and Political Transformations in the Republic of Leaflet © The Israel Museum, Jerusalem, 2019 Guinea” (doctoral thesis). University of London, 1999.