Helmet Mask (Kponyungo)

Arts of Africa

19th to early 20th century

Senufo: Senambele
Côte d’Ivoire
Northern Africa and the Sahel

Among the Senufo, poro is the generic name for age-grade associations whose functions include interceding with supernatural forces, honoring ancestors, and educating young people. The many elements of composite horizontal masks called kponyungo portray powerful spirits that escort the deceased to the other world and protect the community from supernatural danger. Expressing its potency in that realm, this mask’s animal references include a crocodile’s jaw, a hyena’s snout, and horns of both a ram and an antelope.

Status: Currently Off View
Department: Arts of Africa

Culture: Senufo
Title: Helmet Mask (Kponyungo)
Place: Côte d'Ivoire (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.: 1850–1950
Medium: Wood and pigment
Dimensions: 27.9 × 27.3 × 102.9 cm (11 × 10 3/4 × 40 1/2 in.)
Credit Line: The Art Institute of Chicago, African and Amerindian Art Purchase Fund
Reference Number: 1963.842

Museum of Primitive Art, Senufo Sculpture from West Africa (The Museum of Primitive Art, New York, 1963), cat. 34.
Allen Wardwell, Primitive Art in the Collections of the Art Institute of Chicago (Art Institute of Chicago, 1965), fig. 65 (ill.)
The Art of Black Africa, exh. cat. (Flint Institute of Arts Exhibition, 1970), cat. 62 (ill.).
Portland Museum of Art, Tribal Art of West Africa, exh. cat. (Portland Museum of Art, 1971), pl. 20.
Frank Willet, African Art: An Introduction (New York and Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1971; repr. Thames and Hudson, 1993), p. 150, fig. 139.
Warren M. Robbins and Nancy Ingram Nooter, African Art in American Collections (Washington and London: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1989), p. 117, fig. 164 (ill.).
Kathleen Bickford Berzock, “Art of the Western Sudan; African Art at the Art Institute of Chicago,” The Art Institute of Chicago Museum Studies 23, 2 (1997), pp. 117-118, fig. 10.
William J. Dewey, The World Moves, We Follow: Celebrating African Art, exh. cat. (Knoxville, Tenn.: Frank H. McClung Museum, University of Tennessee, 2003), p. 33, pl. 31.
Susan Elizabeth Gagliardi, Senufo: Dynamics of Art and Identity in West Africa (The Cleveland Museum of Art and 5 Continents Press, 2015), p. 94.
Constantine Petridis et al., Speaking of Objects: African Art at the Art Institute of Chicago (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 2020), cat. no. 13, pp. 50-51 (ill.).
Constantine Petridis, ed., The Language of Beauty in African Art, ex. cat. (Yale University Press, 2022), cat. no. 260, p. 281 (ill.).

New York, N.Y., The Museum of Primitive Art, Senufo Sculpture from West Africa, Feb. 20-May 5, 1963, cat. 34; traveled to the Art Institute of Chicago, July 12-Aug. 11, 1963; the Baltimore Museum of Art, Sep. 17-Oct. 27, 1963.
Flint, Mich., Flint Institute of Arts, The Art of Black Africa, Feb. 8-April 5, 1970, cat. 62
Portland, Maine, Portland Museum of Art, Tribal Art of West Africa, Sep. 16–Oct. 31, 1971, cat. 20.
Art Institute of Chicago, Spiritual Expressions: Art for Private Contemplation and Public Ceremony, Nov. 22, 1995–March 17, 1996, Gallery 142, no cat., brochure (ill.).
Knoxville, Tenn., Frank H. McClung Museum, The World Moves, We Follow: Celebrating African Art, Jan. 10–May 18, 2003, cat. 31.
Cleveland Museum of Art, Senufo: Dynamics of Art and Identity in West Africa, Feb. 22–May 31, 2015, cat. 60; traveled to Saint Louis Art Museum, June 28–Sept. 27, 2015; Montpellier, France, Musée Fabre, Nov. 28, 2015–March 6, 2016 (Cleveland and Saint Louis only).
Kimbell Art Museum, Forth Worth, Texas, “The Language of Beauty in African Art”, April 3-July 31, 2022; Art Institute of Chicago, Nov. 20, 2022 - Feb. 27, 2023, cat. no. 260.

Henri (died 1992) and Hélène (ex-Kamer) Leloup, Henri A. Kamer Gallery, New York, N.Y., by 1963 [in Senfuo Sculpture from West Africa, 1963, cat. 34, listed as Collection Mr. and Mrs. Henri A. Kamer, New York]; sold to the Art Institute, Nov. 1963.

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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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