Igbo Okoroshi Mask w/ Janiform Head Attachment

**Originally Listed At $300**

Western Africa, Nigeria, Igbo peoples, ca. 1920s CE. A hand-carved wooden mask of an Okoroshi Oma form with a magnificent janiform headdress. The mask's visage was painted white (traces of the white pigment remain) with red dotted floral motifs adorning the cheeks and black pigment added to the eyebrows and forehead/coiffure. The visage presents narrow slit eyes, a protruding nose, and a slightly parted lips. Attached to the coiffure is a janiform headdress with twisted braids protruding from either side of the white-painted faces that are further adorned with red and black details. Okoroshi Oma masks are white-faced masks meant to represent female water spirits; they are worn during the six month rainy season and represent the dualities associated with the feminine; complementary male spirit masks have black faces. Size: 19.5" L x 8" W (49.5 cm x 20.3 cm)

Provenance: ex-Stewart Bart collection, New York, New York, USA, acquired in the late 1950's

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#151213
Condition Report: Areas of loss to neck and upper lobe of the coiffure of the janiform headdress. Losses to peripheries, coiffure, and high-pointed areas of lower mask. Some inactive insect damage to lower end and verso of lower mask. Age and use commensurate surface wear with scuffs and pigment losses as shown. Wood is weightier than what one sees in masks from the post WWII era.