Punu Mask, Gabon

Punu mask, Gabon, first half of the twentieth century.
In carved wood.
Provenance: Primitive Art Gallery. European Private Collection.
Measurements: 25 x 13 x 14 cms.; 38 cm. with stand.

This Okuyi mask, ceremonial mask representing the idealized face of a female ancestor, sculpted in light wood, is manifested during religious festivities. Okuyi masks are characterized by their realistic faces with well-marked lips, globular eyes cut with a curve, high-domed foreheads, and characteristic high rigid hairstyles reflecting the Punu hairstyles of women, which are maintained today. With a white face, painted with kaolin, and black hair, in the villages they are seen only in semi-darkness, when the night begins to fall, with the face wrapped under the cloths intended to hide the head and body of the dancer, who moves on huge stilts holding the mask between his teeth with the help of a piece of wood fixed at the back where two holes of considerable size have been drilled. With a melancholic appearance, with the serenity of the ancestor, they evoke the soul of a deceased, protector, advisor of the living from the realm of the dead.