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Additional Views

Jun 10, 2009

Mask (Bwoom)

mid- to late 1800s

Africa, Central Africa, Democratic Republic of Congo, Kuba-style carver

Wood and paint

Overall: 43.3 x 31.2 x 28.3 cm (17 1/16 x 12 5/16 x 11 1/8 in.)

James Albert Ford Memorial Fund 1935.304

Location

108A Sub-Saharan

Did you know?

Imagine this mask topped with eagle feathers; they would have been added only on special occasions when it was performed.

Description

Among the Bushoong, the central Kuba group, the mask known as bwoom—most typically identified as the head of a hunter-gatherer—forms a triad with a female mask and another male mask. All three are protagonists in the reenactment of the foundation of the Kuba kingdom. Outside the capital, however, bwoom appears in different non-royal contexts, such as the men’s initiation society.

Provenance

?–1935

(Charles Ratton Gallery, Paris, France, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)

1935–

The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH

Citations

Museum of Modern Art (New York, N.Y.), and James Johnson Sweeney. African Negro Art. New York: Museum of Modern Art, 1935. Mentioned: p. 52, no. 463

The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Handbook. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1958. Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 387 archive.org

Plass, Margaret. The African Image: A New Selection of Tribal Art : the Toledo Museum of Art ... February 1 Through 22, 1959 : Introduction and Catalogue. Toledo, Ohio: The Museum, 1959. Reproduced: p. 30, no. 164

William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, and Ralph T. Coe. The Imagination of Primitive Man: A Survey of the Arts of the Non-Literate Peoples of the World. Kansas City, Mo: The Museum, 1962. Mentioned: p. 11, 46, cat. no. 83

Robbins, Warren M. African Art in American Collections = L'art Africain Dans Les Collections Americaines. New York : F. A. Praeger, 1966. Reproduced: p. 211, pl. 300

The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966. Reproduced: p. 303 archive.org

The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969. Reproduced: p. 303 archive.org

The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978. Reproduced: p. 412 archive.org

Connell, Timothy C., and Jackson J. Spielvogel. World Art Transparencies. Cincinnati: West Educational Pub., 1998. Mentioned: p. 34; Reproduced no. 42

Webb, Virginia-Lee, and Walker Evans. Perfect Documents: Walker Evans and African Art, 1935. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000. Reproduced: p. 24, fig. 15; Reproduced: p. 26, fig. 18

Petridis, Constantijn. South of the Sahara: selected works of African art. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2003. Reproduced: cat. 35, p. 100 - 101

Petridis, Constantine, "African Art Revisited", Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland Art: The Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine. Vol. 43 no. 09, November 2003 Mentioned & reproduced: p. 4-5 archive.org

Robbins, Warren M.. African sculpture. Atglen, PA: Schiffer Pub., 2005. Reproduced: p. 211, pl. 300

Buser, Thomas. Experiencing Art Around Us. Australia: Thomson Wadsworth, 2006. Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 433, fig. 17-22

Sims, Lowery Stokes. The Persistence of Geometry: Form, Content, and Culture in the Collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2006. Mentioned and reproduced: P. 55, no. 44

Petridis, Constantine. "A World of Great Art for Everyone." In Representing Africa in American Art Museums: A Century of Collecting and Display. Kathleen Bickford Berzock and Christa Clarke, 104-121. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2011. Mentioned: p. 112; Reproduced: p. 113, fig. 5.7

Exhibition history

New York, Museum of Modern Art, 1935: "African Negro Art," cat. no. 463, not reproduced

(also to CMA 9/27 - 10/27, 1935),

Toledo, OH, Toledo Museum of Art, February 1 - 22, 1959: "The African Image,"cat. no. 164, repr. p. 30.

Kansas City, MO, William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art, 1/18 - 2/25/1962: "The Imagination of Primitive Man, no. 83."

NY: The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Perfect Documents: Walker Evans and African Art" 2/1/00 - 9/3/00

MOCA Cleveland (6/9/2006 - 8/20/2006): "The Persistence of Geometry: Form, Content and Culture in the Collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art", no. 44, p. 118, color repr. p. 55.

The Silver Jubilee Exhibition. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 23-September 28, 1941).

The Mask. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 27, 1951-January 14, 1952).

The Imagination of Primitive Man. The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO (organizer) (January 18-February 25, 1962).

Perfect Documents: Walker Evans and African Art. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY (organizer) (February 1-September 3, 2000).

The Persistence of Geometry: Form, Content and Culture in the Collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland (MOCA), Cleveland, OH (June 9-August 20, 2006).

Cite this page

{{cite web|title=Mask (Bwoom)|url=https://clevelandart.org/art/1935.304|year=mid- to late 1800s|access-date=03 December 2023|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

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Mask (Bwoom)

Mask (Bwoom)

Africa, Central Africa, Democratic Republic of Congo, Kuba-style carver

Location

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