Plank Mask (Luruya)

Late 19th or early 20th century

Bwa
Burkina Faso
Northern Africa and the Sahel

A specific group of families controls the production and performances of this type of abstract wooden plank mask with geometric designs in red, black, and white. Stemming from the village of Boni and belonging to the Bondé family, this mask was performed in honor of a historic ancestor. He was a person of short stature and is remembered as a masterful hunter who spent long periods of time alone in the forest.

Status: On View, Gallery 137
Department: Arts of Africa

Culture: Bwa
Title: Plank Mask (Luruya)
Place: Burkina Faso (Object made in:)
Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.: 1867–1933
Medium: Wood and pigment
Dimensions: 63.5 × 22.9 × 14 cm (25 × 9 × 5 1/2 in.)
Credit Line: Gift of Joan Faletti Scottberg, the Faletti Family Collection
Reference Number: 2000.313

Christopher D. Roy, Art of the Upper Volta Rivers (Paris: Alain et Francois Chaffin, 1987), pp. 279, fig. 238a (ill.).
Mary Nooter Roberts and Allen F. Roberts, A Sense of Wonder: African Art from the Faletti Family Collection (Phoenix: Phoenix Art Museum, 1997), pg. 58, cat. 6 (ill.).
Constantine Petridis et al., Speaking of Objects: African Art at the Art Institute of Chicago (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 2020), cat. no. 8, pp. 40-41 (ill.).
Clara Granzotto and Ken Sutherland. 2023. “Black, Red and White: Characterization of Painting Materials on a Group of Bwa Masks from Burkina Faso” Applied Sciences 13, no. 22: 12240.
https://doi.org/10.3390/app132212240

Chicago, Ill., Columbia College Art Gallery, Faces of Africa, Jan. 30-Mar. 14, 1987, no cat.
New York, N.Y., Museum for African Art, Outside Museum Walls: African Art in Private Collections, Feb.- Apr. 10, 1994, no cat.
Phoenix Art Museum, A Sense of Wonder: African Art from the Faletti Family Collection, Dec. 13, 1997-Feb. 8, 1998, cat. 6; traveled to Chicago, The David and Alfred Smart Museum of Art, University of Chicago, May 14-June 28, 1998; Urbana-Champaign, Krannert Art Museum and Kinkead Pavilion, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Sep. 18-Nov. 1, 1998; New York, N.Y., The Museum for African Art, Jan. 29-March 28, 1999; Davenport Museum of Art, April 18–June 13, 1999; New Brunswick, N.J., Rutgers University, The Jane Voorhees Zimmerli Art Museum, Sep. 12-Nov. 24, 1999; The Boise Art Museum, Feb. 26 – May 7, 2000.
Art Institute of Chicago, African Artistry: Gifts from the Faletti Family Collection, Oct. 5–May 18, 2003, Gallery 142, no. cat.

Wright Gallery, New York, N.Y., by 1983 [originally collected by William Wright in Upper Volta, according to object inventory card of R. Faletti, copy in curatorial file]; sold to Jeffrey Hammer and Deborah Stokes, Chicago, Ill., by 1983 [this and the following according to object inventory card of R. Faletti, copy in curatorial file]; sold to Richard and Barbara Faletti, Chicago, Ill, May 14, 1983; given to Joan Faletti Scottberg; given to the Art Institute, 2000.

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Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

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Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

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