Introduction
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Masks are known to have existed for 17,000 years, appearing in infinite variety and in widely scattered societies and cultures through the world. Evidence of the prehistoric use of masks has been found in both Europe and Africa, and masks survive from the ancient civilizations of Asia, Africa, Europe, and the Americas. They have been fashioned out of both durable and ephemeral materials, including bone, terrecotta, stone, ivory, metal, and wood, as well as leaves, twigs, feathers, cloth, and animal and vegetable material. Used for disguise, concealment, social control, spirit manipulation, physical protection, and entertainment, masks may be essential components of solemn religious observances of adjuncts to secular festivals.
In the West today, masquerades are found exclusively in performance and secular contexts. In many African societies, however, masking continues to play an essential role in the life of the community and provides an aesthetic means of addressing universal human issues such as: a concern for order; the nature of reality and the cosmos; relationships to others; and coming to terms with death. The masked dancer is accepted as an incarnation of an ancestor or spirit being whose appearance energizes the ritual but the mask itself is only one element in an elaborate and complicated event. Body-concealing costume, dance, music, song, myth, and , often dynamic interaction between masker and audience, are essential components of the masquerade. African masks were meant to be part of a total visual and auditory experience which is irrevocable altered once the mask has been removed from its original setting and displayed as an inert sculpture in a private collection or museum.
Nevertheless, the presence of these objects in a museum affords us the opportunity to begin to understand something of the genius of the African sculptor. The masks illustrated and discussed in the following pages, all from the Art Institute collection, demonstrate the great variety of form, content, and medium which characterize mask production in Africa. These masks represent both humans and animals and exhibit the creators' technical mastery and conceptual creativity, especially in the approach to form. rather than emphasize likeness, the artists concentrate on the essence or the spirit of the subject. Thus for example, the depiction of the emphatic horizontal of the Bwa Butterfly Mask [2] suggests, rather than replicates, the wingspan of the insect in flight.
It is the purpose of this project to introduce teachers and students to these and other African masks, to the cultures which created them, and to the ideas they are meant to convey. The illustrations, didactic information, and curriculum suggestions may be included to assist teachers in defining terms used throughout the text. Because the masks images have been captured in a way to conserve space and screen refresh time and they can never take the place of the actual masks, this site should be used as an introduction and a guide for classroom preparation, but should not replace a visit to the Art Institute to view the masks.
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