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Sande Society Mask (sowei)

Sande Society Mask (sowei)

Unknown

Sande is a women’s association that instills and safeguards female identity. Its leaders danced in sowei primarily during girls’ initiations. These are the only African masks owned and worn exclusively by women, and they represent the idealized beauty of the Sande’s river-spirit patroness. The glossy black surface recalls the spirit’s watery abode and the initiates’ brightly oiled skin.
Artist
Unknown (Sierra Leonean, Sewa-Mende People)
Title
Sande Society Mask (sowei)
Date
ca. 1945
Medium
Wood, pigment, and blackened raffia
Dimensions
14 3/4 x diam. 9 1/2 in. Overall
Credit
J. David and Laura Seefried Horsfall Endowment Fund purchase
Accession No.
1992.36
Classification
Sculpture
Geography
Sierra Leone

Related

by January 1988, with Charles D. Miller III; 1992, sold by Charles D. Miller III of Aspects of Africa, Inc. (St. James, New York) to the Elvehjem Museum of Art [now called Chazen Museum of Art]

  • Exhibition gallery guide, "Revealing Forms: African Art from the Elvehjem Collection." 2002.
  • Drewal, Henry John. "African Art at the Elvehjem." Bulletin/Biennial Report 2001-2003. Elvehjem Museum of Art (2003): 16-36. p. 27
  • Elvehjem Museum of Art. "Artscene." Vol. 8, No. 5, November/ December 1992. p. 3
  • Elvehjem Museum of Art. "Bulletin 1991-1993." Elvehjem Museum of Art, 1994. p. 130
  • Rarey, Matthew Francis and Henry John Drewal. "Never at Rest: African Art at the University of Wisconsin." African Arts, vol 53, no. 4 (2020): 68-85. fig. 11
  • Mato, Daniel and Charles Miller III. "Sande: Masks and Statues from Liberia and Sierra Leone." Amsterdam: Gallery Balolu, 1990. pp. 30-31, illus. p. 31
  • Drewal, Henry John. "Shapes of the Mind: African Art from Long Island Collections." exh. cat. Hempstead, NY: Hofstra Museum, 1988. p. 17, illus. p. 17

  • Revealing Forms: African Art from the Collection: Elvehjem Museum of Art, 4/20/2002–6/16/2002
  • Shapes of the Mind: African Art from Long Island Collections: Hofstra Museum, 1/31/1988–3/25/1988

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