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HOME :
African & Tribal Art :
Guro, Yaure : Guro Mask
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Guro Mask - LR.041
Origin: Africa
Circa: 1850
AD
to 1910
AD
Dimensions:
11" (27.9cm) high
x 6" (15.2cm) wide
Collection: African art
Style: Guro
£8,000.00
Location: Great Britain
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| Description |
Hand-sculpted anthropomorphic wooden mask
with
applied brown, white and black detailing from the
Guro people of the Côte d’Ivoire (Ivory Coast), in
the
valley regions of the Bandama River.
Guro art is stylistically elegant. This arresting
piece
marks the typical features of the Guro’s dominant
artistic output. The elongated face, concave
profile
and slanted eyes are shared by these masks.
Many
Guro masks represent Gu, and as such have
features
that correspond to traditional Guro ideals of
feminine beauty, such as a narrow, well-
proportioned face with small chin, high forehead,
arching black eyebrows, lowered eyelids, a
narrow
nose with delicate nostrils, and slightly open
mouth.
There is no central political authority among the
Guro people and power is held by a council of
elders
comprised of the head men of the various village
quarters, as well as a number of men’s
associations.
The most significant men’s association is the Je
society. This society uses a variety of
anthropomorphic and zoomorphic masks, some
fitted with staff-like superstructures, all ostensibly
fatal for women to view and used for purposes of
social control.
Holes for attachment to the sides of the face
indicate that this mask was originally attached to
some such structure.
Guro masks are now employed primarily for
entertainment.
- (LR.041)
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