Superb Lega Mask, Bwami Society, Democratic Republic of the Congo

idimu
height (with beard) 22 1/2in (57cm)

Provenance
The Donna and Lee Bronson Collection, Los Angeles
Galerie Hélène and Philippe Leloup, Paris
American Private Collection, acquired from the above in 1994

Published
Museum of African Art, African Art in Washington Collections, Washington, D.C., 1973, fig. 362
Cornet, Joseph Aurelien, A Survey of Zairian Art - The Bronson Collection, North Carolina Museum of Art, 1978, fig. 186
Anderson, Martha G., and Christine Mullen Kreamer, Wild Spirits Strong Medicine - African Art and the Wilderness, The Center for African Art, New York, 1989, fig. 45
Biebuyck, Daniel, La Sculpture des Lega, Galerie Hélène and Philippe Leloup, Paris, 1994, fig. 65, pp. 11 and 171

Exhibited
Washington, D.C., African Art in Washington Collections, Museum of African Art, 25 May 1972 - 1 January 1973

Raleigh, North Carolina, A Survey of Zairian Art - The Bronson Collection, North Carolina Museum of Art, 23 April - 4 June 1978 / Washington D.C., Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, 25 July - 25 September 1978 / Los Angeles, California, Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History, 14 November 1978 - 21 January 1979

New York, Wild Spirits, Strong Medicine - African Art and the Wilderness, Center for African Art, 10 May - 20 August 1989 / Evanston, IL, Northwestern University, 21 September - 22 November 1989 / Miami, Florida, The Lowe Art Museum, The University of Miami / Columbus, Ohio, The Columbus Museum of Art, 18 February - 30 April 1990 / Worcester, Massachusetts, The Worcester Art Museum, 15 September - 1 December 1990

Paris, La Sculpture des Lega, Galerie Hélène and Philippe Leloup, 14 June - 30 July 1994

According to Daniel Biebuyck (Ibid., p. 164, "Wooden idimu masks are stylistically and morphologically similar to the wooden lukwakongo maskettes, but they are larger, have huge beards and are mainly almost completely whitened, at least when they occur in the rites. Functionally, the idimu are different from the maskettes, because they are part of collectively-held baskets (which as was explained contain numerous other natural and manufactured objects). Depending on the practices followed in different communities, the idimu masks occur both in yananio and kindi rites, and thus are part of the collectively-controlled baskets at either level. The masks may be hung on a specially-erected fence and surrounded by the individually-owned maskettes, in which case they represent what we would consider to be the arch-patriarch or the primordial founder of the group, or the originator of the particular mask rite in that group. In some initiation rites, the mask may be worn by a preceptor high on the forehead, the beard hanging before his face or on the side of the head."

Elisabeth Cameron notes, "The genius of the Lega artist lies in taking the needs of the Bwami patron and producing a unique artwork that fits carefully within the canon. Each mask, for example, is unmistakably Lega in style and carefully fits within the confines of the Bwami, but when placed with others, its uniqueness can be seen by the critic from an artistic point of view. When connoisseurs try to define Lega style, however, they find it almost impossible. The forehead bulges, except when it is flat; human faces, especially those depicted as masks, are heart-shaped, except when they are not." (Art of the Lega, UCLA Fowler Museum of Cultural History, 2001, p. 67)

A masterwork of Lega art, this exceptional idimu mask, with its mysterious physical presence, encapsulates the enigmatic qualities of the highest form of Lega art. Carved in an elongated oval form, the deeply carved eye sockets immediately capture one's attention and draw you in; the nose is narrow, yet prominent and enhances the dimensional characters; the deeply-grooved mouth has large mysterious indentations in the lower lip; attached around the lower half is a fiber beard adding an organic touch to the composition; the forehead highlighted with linear and lozenge-shaped pattern of dots; smooth, light brown patina on the forehead with kaolin rubbed on the face, heavy in various areas.