Helmet Mask (Mukenga)

Possibly late 19th to mid -20th century

Kuba
Kasai region, Democratic Republic of the Congo
Central Africa

The mukenga mask is worn along with a richly layered costume of raffia and beaded ornaments at funerals of titleholders in the northern part of the Kuba Kingdom. Its form and materials comprise elements associated with status and leadership, including cowrie shells, leopard fur, monkey hair, glass beads, and red tail feathers of the African gray parrot. A prominent trunk and two tusks refer to the elephant, the supreme symbol of wealth and leadership among the Kuba.

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

Culture: Kuba
Title: Helmet Mask (Mukenga)
Place: Democratic Republic of the Congo (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.: 1875–1950
Medium: Wood, glass beads, cowrie shells, feathers, raffia, fur, fabric, thread, monkey hair, and bells
Dimensions: 57.5 × 24.1 × 20.3 cm (22 5/8 × 9 1/2 × 8 in.)
Credit Line: Laura T. Magnuson Fund
Reference Number: 1982.1504

Francois Neyt, Traditional Arts and History of Zaire: Forest Cultures and Kingdomes of the Savannah (Louvain: Institute Supérieur d’Archéologie et d’Historie de l’Art; Brussels: Société d’Arts Primitifs, 1981), p. 157, fig. VIII.5.
Art Institute of Chicago, Annual Report 1982-83 (Art Institute of Chicago, 1983), pp. cover, 7 (fig. 8), 35 (ill.).
Marianna Torgovnick, Gone Primitive: Savage Intellects, Modern Lives (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1990), p. 93, fig. 4.2.
David Binkley, “The Teeth of the Nyim: The Elephant and Ivory in Kuba Art,” in Elephant: The Animal and its Ivory in African Culture, exh. cat., ed. Doran H. Ross (Fowler Museum of Cultural History, 1995), p. 287, fig. 13–12.
Art Institute of Chicago, “The Lion’s Trail: A Family Gallery Hunt” (Art Institute of Chicago, 1998).
Jean Sousa, “Looking at Art Together: Families and Lifelong Learning” (Art Institute of Chicago, 2002), p. 11.
Art Institute of Chicago, The Art Institute of Chicago: The Essential Guide, revised ed. (Art Institute of Chicago, 2003), p. 23 (ill.).
Suzanne Preston Blier, “African Creation Myths as Political Strategy,” African Arts, vol. 47, no. 1 (Spring 2004), p. 42.
Art Institute of Chicago, Art Institute of Chicago The Essential Guide, revised ed. (Art Institute of Chicago, 2009), p. 13 (ill.).
Constantine Petridis et al., Speaking of Objects: African Art at the Art Institute of Chicago (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 2020), cat. no. 62, pp. 152-153, cover (ill.).

Peter Loebarth, Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo and Belgium, by late 1970s; sold to Jacques Hautelet, Brussels, Belgium, and La Jolla, Calif., during late 1970s [personal communication documented in curatorial file, 10/6/2013]; sold to the Art Institute, 1982.

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Artwork Resource Packet: Mask (Mukenga)

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