Maskcirca 1820

Not on view

Carved wooden mask with a flame-shaped silhouette, dark pigmented surface, projecting hooked beak, open-mouthed teeth, and rows of drilled holes along the edges

Title: Mask
Place Made: New Caledonia
Date Made: circa 1820
Medium: Wood
Dimensions: 21 x 8 x 6 1/2 in. (53.34 x 20.32 x 16.51 cm)
Credit Line: Purchased with funds provided by the Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation with additional funding by Jane and Terry Semel, the David Bohnett Foundation, Camilla Chandler Frost, Gayle and Edward P. Roski, and The Ahmanson Foundation
Accession Number: M.2008.66.25
Classification: Jewelry and Adornments
Collecting Area: Art of the Pacific
Curatorial Notes: Gallery Label
This heavy wood mask has a prominent and exaggerated hooked nose, full cheeks, angular mouth, and almond eyes. Carved holes at the edge were used to attach fiber or hair to construct a realistic beard. The hair was human and occasionally grown specifically for use on a ceremonial mask.
The striking shape of this mask has a few possible origins. It could be a representation of a myth story, in which a cultural hero lost his nose, causing him great shame, the mask therefore representing the nose he lost. The other possibility is that the shape reflects a stylistic influence from the neighboring islands of Vanuatu.
The mask is marked from the adze (a cutting tool used chiefly for shaping wood) that carved it, and although its exact function is unknown, it would have been paired with a full body costume. This costume may have been used in the mourning process and made of a cloak of dark feathers. The style of the mask, with its strong nose and facial features, indicates that it comes from the northern area of New Caledonia.
Provenance: [Anthony Innocent Moris (1866–1951), Paris]. Wayne Heathcote (b. 1943), New York, NY, sold to; Masco Corporation Collection, Livonia, MI, sold 2008 through; [Sotheby’s, New York, to]; LACMA.
Selected Bibliography: Wardwell, Allen. Island Ancestors: Oceanic Art from the Masco Collection. [Seattle]: University of Washington Press, 1994.

Maskcirca 1820

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Maskcirca 1820

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