wolfgang-jaenicke
A Grebo rituel mask
A Grebo rituel mask
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€170,00 EUR
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€170,00 EUR
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Estimated price 500 - 600 €
A Grebo rituel mask, Ivory Coast. incl. stand.
The Grebo people, residing primarily in the southwestern Côte d’Ivoire, are renowned for their dramatic and powerful ritual masks, which are deeply tied to spiritual, martial, and ancestral traditions. These masks are among the most visually arresting in West Africa—used historically in warfare, funerary rites, initiation ceremonies, and to embody and invoke protective forest spirits.
A typical Grebo mask is made of wood and painted in stark colors—black, white, red, and sometimes blue—to enhance its otherworldly power. Its most distinctive features are the multiple tubular eyes (sometimes extending outward in clusters), a projecting mouth or snout, and occasionally horns or animal attributes. The tubular eyes represent heightened perception, allowing the spirit to see in all directions, detect hidden dangers, and perceive invisible forces. The entire form is designed to intimidate enemies and malevolent spirits, as well as to project spiritual authority.
These masks are danced during highly charged ritual performances where the wearer is believed to be possessed by a spirit entity—a forest force or an ancestral being—that channels its protection or judgment into the community. Dances are accompanied by intense drumming and masked movement, often in village clearings or sacred groves. Only initiated men are permitted to carve, wear, or even witness certain aspects of these performances, reinforcing their sacred secrecy and spiritual power.
Grebo masks often transcend typical aesthetic norms in African art; they are aggressively abstract and confrontational, challenging the viewer with their sculptural force and psychological impact. Their bold, modernist appearance even influenced 20th-century European artists—Pablo Picasso being a notable example, who encountered such forms through African art exhibitions.
As art historian Robert Farris Thompson explains:
“The Grebo mask is a scream carved in wood—an image meant not for contemplation, but confrontation. It is an aesthetic of alarm, a spiritual semaphore warning of danger, summoning ancestral vigilance, and compelling the living to remember the invisible.”
(African Art in Motion, 1974)
Musée du quai Branly - Jacques Chirac
Bassani, La Grand Heritage, Florence, 1992:262 is writing about this mask, states this is a classical example of the geometric style of Greba masks. On the lower flat side, the features are rendered by rigorous volumes - two cylinders for the eyes, a pyramid for the the nose and a parallelogramm for the lips. The mask is a precise geometric form which accentuated the architectural plastic qualities. Indeed Picasso was inspiered by the related mask which he purchased in Marseille in 1912 when he created the "Guitar", now in the Museum for Modern Art, New York (Rubin, Primitivism in the Art of the 20th century, 1984:20 - 21).
The Grebo people, residing primarily in the southwestern Côte d’Ivoire, are renowned for their dramatic and powerful ritual masks, which are deeply tied to spiritual, martial, and ancestral traditions. These masks are among the most visually arresting in West Africa—used historically in warfare, funerary rites, initiation ceremonies, and to embody and invoke protective forest spirits.
A typical Grebo mask is made of wood and painted in stark colors—black, white, red, and sometimes blue—to enhance its otherworldly power. Its most distinctive features are the multiple tubular eyes (sometimes extending outward in clusters), a projecting mouth or snout, and occasionally horns or animal attributes. The tubular eyes represent heightened perception, allowing the spirit to see in all directions, detect hidden dangers, and perceive invisible forces. The entire form is designed to intimidate enemies and malevolent spirits, as well as to project spiritual authority.
These masks are danced during highly charged ritual performances where the wearer is believed to be possessed by a spirit entity—a forest force or an ancestral being—that channels its protection or judgment into the community. Dances are accompanied by intense drumming and masked movement, often in village clearings or sacred groves. Only initiated men are permitted to carve, wear, or even witness certain aspects of these performances, reinforcing their sacred secrecy and spiritual power.
Grebo masks often transcend typical aesthetic norms in African art; they are aggressively abstract and confrontational, challenging the viewer with their sculptural force and psychological impact. Their bold, modernist appearance even influenced 20th-century European artists—Pablo Picasso being a notable example, who encountered such forms through African art exhibitions.
As art historian Robert Farris Thompson explains:
“The Grebo mask is a scream carved in wood—an image meant not for contemplation, but confrontation. It is an aesthetic of alarm, a spiritual semaphore warning of danger, summoning ancestral vigilance, and compelling the living to remember the invisible.”
(African Art in Motion, 1974)
Musée du quai Branly - Jacques Chirac
Bassani, La Grand Heritage, Florence, 1992:262 is writing about this mask, states this is a classical example of the geometric style of Greba masks. On the lower flat side, the features are rendered by rigorous volumes - two cylinders for the eyes, a pyramid for the the nose and a parallelogramm for the lips. The mask is a precise geometric form which accentuated the architectural plastic qualities. Indeed Picasso was inspiered by the related mask which he purchased in Marseille in 1912 when he created the "Guitar", now in the Museum for Modern Art, New York (Rubin, Primitivism in the Art of the 20th century, 1984:20 - 21).
The Picasso Grebo Mask of 1912 and the sculpture "Guitar", created in the same year.
wj
Price on request.
Height: 71 cm / 79 cm incl. stand
Weight: 2,8 kg incl. stand
