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Happy Year of the Dragon. Here is my Dragon Girl Bird sculpture from 2018.

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Monday, January 28, 2013

Masks Ibo (Igbo), Fang, Picasso





Part of the problem with African masks is to avoid those which were created just to sell to tourists.

Then there are the cultural differences, and you can't blame Africans for hiding some of their religious rituals from invasive missionary Christians.  Many masks were worn just for the spiritual practices of tribal peoples.

Western European art was impacted by the early importation (19th Century) of African art...including Picasso using some of the style in his early cubist paintings. (see below)

I won't try to depict the ceremonial masks specifically.  I'm just interested in design here.

And actually all of these sculptures are made of wood.  My interest is translating, or using them for inspiration for clay masks.
















2 comments:

  1. Oh these are some great masks for inspiration and the Picasso inspiration is interesting to see, great post.

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  2. They all have such beautiful design elements, very inspiring. I'm looking forward to seeing what you make.

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