African(?) carving

Looks more like modern decor carved to order to me but the back of it is rough polished and not perfectly smooth so maybe modern tourist wear. Any ideas where from and when??
Data 47cm High, 37.5cm Wide, 1.1Kg
Cheers
Stephen

 

It looks like a tourist version of a sun/moon mask made by the Eket/Ibibio in Nigeria.
https://www.africadirect.com/ibibio-eket-mask-round-cross-river-nigeria-african-art-127161.html

 

I agree, it's a mask/wall hanging made for the tourist trade or decorator market. As such, it probably can't be identified as any particular traditional mask, but it often a "generic African" style interpretation. It has elements of design patterns that could be taken from several tribes, including some from the Ivory Coast, like the Guro or Baule.

Often the way the individual features are depicted (shape of the nose, eyes, mouth, hair, headdress, etc.) will give a clue...but this one is a mix of styles not usually seen in any one particular mask.

 

Almost all the African masks you see around are tourist art, there may be the odd old one floating around but mostly what we see (even stuff from the 50's) is what we call "Airport" art ..stuff to bring home from a trip.
The earlier tourist are resembled the real thing much more than the stuff made today and most of the stuff could pass for the real McCoy - and probably has!

This piece has elements of Ibo, so it's probably Nigerian, but in reality just a wall-hanger.

 

Funny thing about tourist ware. Only the very first tourists got the real stuff and since then the locals probably made only the most popular/profitable stuff in colours and shapes the tourists liked the most. I suspect only the pre-tourist grave goods have the real stuff in them.

 

But another way to look at it, is that if it hadn't been for the tourist market in the United States, the "traditional" crafts we have today would probably be lost. Almost every Indian basket for sale today, was made for the tourist trade. Certainly Navajo weaving was kept alive by the tourist and collector market. The "traditional" pottery made since the 1880s was made for sale. Not only did the sale of crafts provide an important source of income for a large share of the Native American people, but it kept the arts going and allowed them to evolve.

The same can probably be said for African art as well.

 

Quite true and in some areas such as Egypt it has kept them going for 2,000 years.

 

When I was in Paris in the 90's, visiting a flea market, there were a couple shops that imported and sold African masks and sculptures. Selection was incredible. I couldn't understand why some were $50 and others were $500 - in the same shop. I speak horrible French and they didn't speak much better English. But as far as I could tell, none of it was old - it was simply that the better made, more finely carved stuff was the stuff that was so much more expensive. Still makes me wonder though?

That's the problem with wood in Africa. Put it in the ground and it is gone within a few years - so no wooden grave goods from Africa (unlike Egypt where some of Tut's wood furniture lasted for 3000 years).

 

Interesting information and thoughts from all of you. I know nothing about this topic, and learn a lot from reading discussions like this.

 

i have it on good account that the Paris market for African art is fraught with all manner of deception.....& if you're from out of town...even worse !

 

Can't remember where I read it, but there may be some truth to a story I learned about some types of African art - that our categories of "made for use" (good) and "made for sale" (bad) may sometimes overlap. As others have noted, wooden objects don't last a long time in much of the African climate. And I don't believe things such as masks were kept as heirlooms, handed down through generations. Mask making is a continuing tradition - masks are made, used for awhile, and then replaced. The used ones can then be sold. So it is not impossible to find masks on the market with ethnographic "legitimacy". Which is not to say that there is not also a thriving market for pseudo authentic masks, as well as outright tourist bait.

 

let me offer that many early field collectors stripped off all the dance material and only came back with the wood.....

 

And many of the African figural sculptures in museums got a good scrubbing and oiling, to remove any signs of use and "reveal the true beauty of the wood". They were placing value on the artistic quality of the forms, more than any record of their meaning in the culture of origin.

 

Museums and art galleries, although sacred cows to many, are in my experience good at some things and terrible at others. In my career I have seen many a goof in all sorts of institutional collections, so I view museum opinion with the same grain of salt that I apply to an internet description.

 

Museums are not "sacred cows", but home to scholars more rigorous and knowledgeable than the average internet denizen. Museums are caretakers of old information as well as old objects, but ongoing research can identify the errors in earlier attributions - knowledge is cumulative. It is an extremely rare source that is 100% accurate, and I would not throw out a book because of a few errors in the text (though I might look again at the author's credentials). A good researcher is skilled at evaluating a variety of sources while taking into consideration the limitations of those sources, synthesizing a reasonable conclusion based on the current evidence, and being humble about the possibility of new information in the future.
Have you ever assisted a museum by sharing your expertise when you have seen errors in exhibits or catalogs?