A Guro mask

A Guro mask, Ivory Coast, Oume region. Certificate of origin and provenance. Incl. stand.

“The Guro generally called themselves Kwen or Kwenim The name Guro was originally used but other groups including Baule, who lived further east, then quickly adopted by the French colonial authorities and eventually widely accepted by the Guro people themselves. In any case it refers to several groups of people who speak the same language with a few dialectal differences, and live in a region in the centre west Ivory Coast. While the Western art market prizes carved wooden objects , the Guro actually produce and appreciate various other forms of art…For the Guro, art was a community affairs never a specialized occupation… Because it required mastery of fire blacksmithing was still held in hight esteem even if the blacksmith himself was feared rather than envied for the ambiguous stature that cam from handling necessarily and potentially dangerous forces.”

Source; Anne Marie Bouttiaux, Vision of Africa, GURO, 2016.

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Height: 44 cm without stand
Weight: 2 kg incl stand