Africa | Gabon
Vuvi mask
Gabon
Early 20th century
Carved wood, pigments and raffia
Height: 34 cm – 13 ¼ in.
Provenance
Private collection, France, since the 1970s
Collection Renaud Vanuxem, Paris
Vuvi mask 34 cm / Galerie Flak
Price: on request
Also known as Pubi, Vouvi, or Puvi, the Vuvi of central Gabon performed masked ceremonies in which each mask, bearing a distinct name and personality, revealed itself through ritual. As Charlotte Grand-Dufay notes in "Tribal Art", 2013, the Vuvi were part of a broader cultural milieu alongside the Fang and Tsogho, with their abstract “white masks” reflecting these connections.
Characterized by a flat, shield-shaped face with features concentrated in the upper part, they depict mythical entities—such as the moon—and are linked to the Bwete Disumba and Mureli initiatory societies.
See "Les forêts natales – Arts de l’Afrique équatoriale atlantique" (musée du quai Branly - Jacques Chirac, 2017, p. 324) for a closely related mask, in the collections of the Musée National d’art moderne, (Centre Pompidou, Paris, inv. AM 1984-349).
Characterized by a flat, shield-shaped face with features concentrated in the upper part, they depict mythical entities—such as the moon—and are linked to the Bwete Disumba and Mureli initiatory societies.
See "Les forêts natales – Arts de l’Afrique équatoriale atlantique" (musée du quai Branly - Jacques Chirac, 2017, p. 324) for a closely related mask, in the collections of the Musée National d’art moderne, (Centre Pompidou, Paris, inv. AM 1984-349).
Publication
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