Skip Navigation

Mask for the Okuyi Society (Mukudj)

Arts of Africa

CULTURE Punu
MEDIUM Wood, pigment, metal
  • Place Made: Gabon
  • DATES late 19th century
    DIMENSIONS 12 × 8 1/2 × 7 1/4 in. (30.5 × 21.6 × 18.4 cm)  (show scale)
    COLLECTIONS Arts of Africa
    ACCESSION NUMBER 68.160
    CREDIT LINE Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Milton Lowenthal through The Roebling Society
    CATALOGUE DESCRIPTION White-faced female mask with heart-shaped face, coffee bean eyes and open mouth. Small ears set at right angles to head. Large areas of scarification between brows and on both temples. Elaborate coiffure with large roll of hair running from front to back on center of head, smaller flaps of hair over ears. Masks on wooden backing (carved in one piece with face of mask). Face covered with white paint, the symbolic color of ghosts. Mask similar to white-face masks used by Ibo in their Mmwo society. See also Museum's 22.225 for similar Balumbo example. CONDITIONS: Good. Piece missing under chin. Section from left hair flap missing, right hair flap chipped. Piece also missing from top of backing. Paint flaked on face. Lips restored in 1969.
    MUSEUM LOCATION This item is not on view
    CAPTION Punu. Mask for the Okuyi Society (Mukudj), late 19th century. Wood, pigment, metal, 12 × 8 1/2 × 7 1/4 in. (30.5 × 21.6 × 18.4 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Milton Lowenthal through The Roebling Society, 68.160. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 68.160_PS2.jpg)
    IMAGE overall, 68.160_PS2.jpg. Brooklyn Museum photograph, 2007
    "CUR" at the beginning of an image file name means that the image was created by a curatorial staff member. These study images may be digital point-and-shoot photographs, when we don\'t yet have high-quality studio photography, or they may be scans of older negatives, slides, or photographic prints, providing historical documentation of the object.
    RIGHTS STATEMENT Creative Commons-BY
    You may download and use Brooklyn Museum images of this three-dimensional work in accordance with a Creative Commons license. Fair use, as understood under the United States Copyright Act, may also apply. Please include caption information from this page and credit the Brooklyn Museum. If you need a high resolution file, please fill out our online application form (charges apply). For further information about copyright, we recommend resources at the United States Library of Congress, Cornell University, Copyright and Cultural Institutions: Guidelines for U.S. Libraries, Archives, and Museums, and Copyright Watch. For more information about the Museum's rights project, including how rights types are assigned, please see our blog posts on copyright. If you have any information regarding this work and rights to it, please contact copyright@brooklynmuseum.org.
    RECORD COMPLETENESS
    Not every record you will find here is complete. More information is available for some works than for others, and some entries have been updated more recently. Records are frequently reviewed and revised, and we welcome any additional information you might have.