Description:

Oceania, Papua New Guinea, East New Britain Province, Gazelle Peninsula, Uramot Baining culture, ca. early 20th century CE. A boldly dramatic hand-built barkcloth helmet mask of a highly-abstract avian form with a flared headpiece, a large two-part 'beak,' and an enormous crested head with concentric circle eyes reinforced around the interior of each socket with a wooden hoop. Fine registers of black-and-red triangular and diamond-form motifs course along the bridge between the eyes as well as the verso, and web-form 'eyebrows' trace inward and surround a stylized spider within a zigzagging ovoid border. Known locally as a "kavat sowelmat," masks like this example were created for use in ritual ceremonies of funerary, birthing, and initiation contexts. Size: 22.5" W x 32.5" H (57.2 cm x 82.6 cm).

For a stylistically-similar example, please see The Brooklyn Museum, accession number 1994.142: https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/opencollection/objects/126870

Provenance: private Southern California, USA collection, acquired in the 1970s to mid-1980s

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#146085

  • Condition: Light wear to headpiece, beak, and head portion, with fading to original pigmentation, and light fraying to peripheries, otherwise intact and very good. Light earthen deposits throughout. Wired on verso for mounting.

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June 6, 2019 7:00 AM MDT
Louisville, CO, US

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