Baule Goli Mask Côte d'Ivoire

A grand Baule Goli mask measuring 17 inches in height with a beautiful blue, yellow and red pigmentation. A striking addition to any art collection.

The Baule have several different masks ranging from refined portrait masks to large headpieces representing wild buffalo or antelope. These masks are exuberantly carved and painted. The Kplekple mask was one of a set of masks that appeared during a ceremony and is identified with the spirit of the young men who dance the mask. As one of the first masks to appear during a dance ceremony, Goli Kplekple sets the stage, engages the audience, and prepares the way for the more important masks that will dance later.

Baule masks are most often symbolically representative of animals in the Baule pantheon of mythical animals and beings. This kplekple shows an abstracted buffalo head in a flat format with slightly protruding eyes and mouth, with the horns projecting upwards. It could well be an anthropomorphizing bush cow with human facial features. It would be worn with a raffia (grass) costume attached to the lower section of the mask reaching to below the waist, and a grass skirt covering the body and legs. It is a visually dramatic example of the continuity of a long-standing Baule tradition of visual and symbolic statements.

Dimensions: 17 x 16 x 1 inches

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