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History in Complexartworks Could Be, How They Were Both Intellectualand Visceral, Dramaticand Subtle

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History in Complexartworks Could Be, How They Were Both Intellectualand Visceral, Dramaticand Subtle tA7 - PHOTO: THE UNIVERSITYOF IOWAMUSEUM OF ART I was an early Arnold student, the result of his three non-Westernsurvey courses. As an undergraduate Is There senior I had taken classes in Easternand all sorts of Westernart, but I had never thought about or really even lookedat the arts of Africa, the Americas,or Oceania. Arnold was electrifying.For me he showed how History in complexartworks could be, how they were both intellectualand visceral, dramaticand subtle. He made art's importanceevident, and I appreciatedthat Horizontalimmensely. By then I had takenseveral studio courses, and I was nearly committedto graduate school in design. Arnold convertedme. As a first-year graduate student with him, I Masks? rememberour lively and provocativeseminars, and all the special speakershe broughtfor us to experience.But I also rememberafternoons and weekends,going with A Preliminary him to used-bookstores and a gun shop where wonderfulAfrican iron workshad ended up for sale. We went to a giant warehouseof old booksin Long Beach.I Response grew up in L.A. but had never gone to the place. He on the other hand had arrivedfrom the Midwest and made a beelinefor it, and so could takehis graduate students to the Dilemma directly to the spot where some six copies of The Secret Museum of Mankind sat patiently. These sorts of things, combinedwith my time with Arnold on campus, of Form madebeing his student especiallymemorable. PATRICKR. McNAUGHTON 40 The contemplation of forms has elements in their social realities, this of the horizontal mask into the northern inspired this essay, causing me to unity prompts a question worthy of fur- savanna of Central Africa. question how the masks discussed here- ther examination. Is it possible that the Several scholars have written about in came to occupy their present concep- visual similarities in these masks are not these masks. In 1962 Douglas Fraser tual and cultural space. The answer, if just happenstance, but rather the result of published "The Legendary Ancestor there is one, lies in future research, a history we might begin to understand? Tradition in West African Art." Con- which I hope will contribute to a richer The masks are used across nearly fining himself to certain examples in the reconstruction of African art history. 3,000 miles of West and Central Africa, western area, he cast a very esoteric net Form and distribution studies are covering a wide variety of ecologies, by in a preliminary effort to link the sculp- today a dangerous business for art histo- members of eight language or culture tures' functions and meanings. One rians, since in isolation they ignore so affiliations who belong to some seventy- year later Monni Adams submitted a many kinds of data and new research eight ethnic groups (see Fig. 3). At one master's thesis to Fraser titled "The perspectives. But they can be useful to end of this range are the Baga versions Distribution and Significance of Com- formulate art historical issues and prob- in Guinea. Near the eastern end are the posite Animal-Headed Masks in Afri- lems that warrant in-depth exploration. Jukun, Chamba, and Cameroon Grass- can Sculpture," which emphasized There are hundreds of masking tradi- lands versions. Further east, in the Chari horizontal masks. Her mission was not tions in sub-Saharan Africa, but nearly and Ubangi river basins, the Sara Mbaye historical reconstruction. Rather, she all are based on a mere handful of formal and Manja extend the geographic range wanted to demonstrate a basic unity in configurations: headdresses (Bamana Ci wara, for example), helmet masks (as in Yoruba Epa), face masks (such as Lwalwa Ngongo association masks), and masquerade constructions (from simple Middle Benue net costumes to elaborate Igbo Ijele multi-media creations). Out of these rudimentary structures emerge three-dimensional compositions of astounding variety-a mosaic of forms that occur in seemingly random geo- graphic patterns that have been chang- ing and flowing for so long that historical reconstructions of their occur- rence within any definable unit (region, ethnic group, even single town) are exceedingly difficult. Two of these rudimentary struc- tures, the helmet and, less frequently, the headdress, provide the foundation for a constellation of masks used wide- ly across West Africa. They generally suggest animals, usually wild animals (such as bush buffaloes) and often more than one simultaneously in a composite composition. Very abstract, and most frequently divided into three compositional segments, these sculp- tures project, often dramatically, away from the vertical axis. Thus they are often called horizontal masks, al- though several examples are worn diagonally. They are strikingly differ- ent from other helmet masks or head- dresses, as well as from face masks and masquerade constructions. While the appearance of these hori- zontal masks varies greatly, there is also a pronounced degree of unity. And be- cause the masks are each complex cultur- al forms vitally affiliated with many OPPOSITEPAGE: 1. HELMETMASK, KPONYUNGO. SENUFO, COTE D'IVOIRE/BURKINAFASO. WOOD, LENGTH104cm. THE UNIVERSITYOF IOWAMUSEUM OF ART, IOWACITY, THE STANLEYCOLLECTION (X1986.533). 2. GOLI MASK. BAULE, COTE D'IVOIRE. WOOD, PAINT;68.6cm. COLLECTIONOF MRS. BERTABASCOM, KENSINGTON,CALIFORNIA. PHOTO LOWIEMUSEUM OF ANTHROPOLOGY.UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA.BERKELEY. COURTESY OF MRS BERTA BASCOM 41 C w E MAP: DON SNODGRASS 3. HORIZONTALMASKS: DISTRIBUTIONAND SOURCES This chart provides a sampling of biblio- 5 Akye (Akan related), Kwa (Niger-Congo),W. Bobo (vertical, partial helmet), Mande 32 Eloyi (Afo), Benue (Niger-Congo), E. graphic and other sources for horizontal Do inst. (Niger-Congo), W. Sieber saw several that were quite large, masks and serves as a key to the map. It is Visona, pers. com., 1990; Dwo inst. in helmet form with a snout projection, incomplete, and I would welcome readers' forthcoming (field photos 1981-82). Roy 1987:ills.279-82, 285-89, 292, 301, 302. a dancer's vision hole in the mouth, and additions. Numbers locate ethnic groups a surface absolutely covered with a vari- 6 Anyi, Kwa (Niger-Congo), W. 18 Bodiman (near Douala), Bantu roughly on the map. E and W refer to eastern ety of attachments, including small Do inst. (Niger-Congo), E. and western regions of the mask range. figures. He notes that Elsy Leuzinger Kouadio Aka, pers. com., 1982. inst., Nyati mask. affiliations, such as Kwa Ekongolo collected one (pers. com., 1990). Language (Niger- Adams 1963:37; Paulme 1962:110. are based on 1966 and 7 Aowin, Akan-Kwa W. Congo), Greenberg (Niger-Congo), 33 Fante, Akan-Kwa W. Fivaz and 1978. Do inst. (Niger-Congo), Scott 19 Bolo (vertical, partial helmet), Mande Do inst. Several and Jukun, for exam- Sieber 1989; pers. com., 1990 W. groups (Baga (Niger-Congo), Sieber 1989; pers. com.,1990; use more than one of horizontal (field photos 1964). 1987:ill. 308. ple) "type" Roy Ross, pers. com., 1991. mask; differ in some combi- they extensively 8 Bafo, Bantu (Niger-Congo), E. W. Fante or Wasaw, Akan-Kwa nation of and 20 Bwa (Bobo-Oule), Voltaic(Niger-Congo), form, function, name, meaning. & Kutscher 1967:Bild 54. W. These mask versions are listed Krieger Do inst. (Niger-Congo), individually Secret Museum of Mankind, vol. 2: under the ethnic I have multi- 9 West Atlantic W. Roy 1987:ills. 219, 254, 257. n.p. group. provided Baga, (Niger-Congo), This is a mask in a Fante sources for masks that are hard to find in Simo inst., Banda mask. Bwa (Bobo-Oule), Voltaic(Niger-Congo), W. photo possibly ple town in the area of the Wasaw. the literature, and in instances where I have Huet 1978:25, figs. 28-30; Do inst. Roy 1987:ills. 223-25, 249, 254. found no illustrations, I have provided my Van Geertruyen 1976:74-79. 21 Cameroon Grasslands (Bamileke), 34 Fon, Kwa (Niger-Congo), E. source for the reference and hope readers will Baga, West Atlantic (Niger-Congo), W. Benue (Niger-Congo), E. Herskovits 1967, vol. 1:249, pl. 35b. send me illustration sources. Where known, I Numbe Tafo) mask. (Thongkonggba, Northern 1984:168-70, fig. 101. 35 Gambia River, W. have the of provided name the association, Lamp 1986:66, fig. 4; "Costume of the circumcised." cult, or festival (referred to as "inst.")in which Van Geertruyen 1976:96-98. 22 Cameroon Grasslands (Bamum), Froger 1698, in Willett 1971:fig.80. the mask is used, and also the mask name. Benue (Niger-Congo), E. 10 Bajong (Balong?), Bantu (Niger-Congo),E. Is this the earliest documented Sometimes a distinction is difficult to make on Geary & Njoya 1985:ill. p. 157. Ekongolo inst., Nyati mask. horizontal mask? the basis of published sources; here too, Adams Paulme 1962:110. 23 Chamba, Adamawa-Eastern (Niger- 1963:37; 36 Goemai Chadic E: additional information from readers would be Congo), E, (Ankwe), (Afro-Asiatic), 11 Bamana, Mande (Niger-Congo), W. mask. greatly appreciated. Komo inst. Kaa Wara (Namgbolin) mask. Gugwom Some groups were problematic. On the Sieber 1974:fig. 7. McNaughton 1979:figs. 4-6; Rubin 1978:54-57; Sieber 1974:fig.17. basis of the two sources Goemai (Ankwe), Chadic (Afro-Asiatic),E. linguistic plus 1972:11, Abb. 17. Murdock I as Volprecht 24 Dafing (Marka), Mande (Niger-Congo), W. mask. 1959, interpreted Balong Mande W. Mongop and Jakoko as and both Bamana, (Niger-Congo), Roy 1987:ill. 274. Sieber 1961:10, 25, 26. Bajong, Koko, align Kono inst. figs. with Bantu languages. I use Philip Ravenhitl's McNaughton 1979:fig. 9. 25 Degha, Voltaic (Niger-Congo), W. 37 Guro, Mande (Niger-Congo), W. "Mande" designation for the of language Mande W. Gbain inst. Do inst. Wan, Sieber's "Akan-Kwa" Bamana, (Niger-Congo), Roy designation Nama inst. Bravmann 1974:119-46, pls.
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