Female Face Mask (Ndoma)

Late 19th or mid–20th century

Baule
Côte d’Ivoire
Coastal West Africa

Until Côte d’Ivoire’s civil war (2002–2007), Baule village life was regularly punctuated by entertainment masquerades. Such spectacles included masks that were idealized portraits honoring living members of the community. They were attached to a cloth costume and worn by a man—including the female mask displayed here—while the person portrayed typically danced beside him. In addition to individualized traits in its hairstyle and scarifications, this mask’s high forehead symbolizes intelligence and its downcast eyes suggest an introspective disposition.

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

Culture: Baule
Title: Female Face Mask (Ndoma)
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.: 1875–1975
Medium: Wood, copper alloy, and pigment
Dimensions: 28.6 × 18.1 × 12.7 cm (11 1/4 × 7 1/8 × 5 in.)
Credit Line: The Art Institute of Chicago, Ada Turnbull Hertle Endowment
Reference Number: 1988.309

Michel Leiris and Jacqueline Delange, L’Art de l’Afrique noire, exh. cat. (Festival Artistique, Besançon: Palais Granvelle, 1958), p. 28, cat. 106, pl. xiv.
Susan Vogel, Baule: African Art/Western Eyes (Yale University Press, 1997), pp. 112-13 (ill.).
Jean Sousa, Looking at Art Together: A Parent Guide (Art Institute of Chicago, 2002), p. 51.
Alain-Michel Boyer, Baule (5 Continents-Visions of Africa), p. 16 (ill.)
Constantine Petridis et al., Speaking of Objects: African Art at the Art Institute of Chicago (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 2020), cat. no. 27, pp. 84-85 (ill.).
Constantine Petridis, ed., The Language of Beauty in African Art, ex. cat. (Yale University Press, 2022), cat. no. 177, p. 215 (ill.).

Besonçon, France, Palais Granvelle, L’Art de l’Afrique noire, July 12-Oct. 5, 1958, cat. 106.
New Haven, Conn., Yale University Art Gallery, Baule: African Art/Western Eyes, Aug. 30, 1997–Jan. 4, 1998, exh. cat.; traveled to the Art Institute of Chicago, Feb. 2–May 10, 1998, New York, Museum of African Art, Sep. 11, 1998–Jan. 3, 1999, Washington, D.C., National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, Feb. 9–May 16, 1999.
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. 177.

Paul Bedia (died 1958), Abidjan, Ivory Coast [invoice from Hélène and Philippe Leloup dated May 24, 1988 in curatorial file]. Henri Kamer (died 1992), Paris, France, by Oct. 1958 [published as “Collection Henri Kamer” in L’Art de l’Afrique noire, 1958, p. 28, cat. 106, plate xiv]. Philippe and Hélène (ex-Kamer) Leloup, Helene & Philippe Leloup, Inc., African and Primitive Art, New York, N.Y.; sold to the Art Institute, 1988.

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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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