Mask Representing an Antisocial Character (Gongoli)

early to mid-20th century

Ugly! This is the reaction that the Mende audience has when seeing this mask in performance. The uglier, the better. The function of the Gongoli performance is to show the worst side of human nature: deformed, disheveled, chaotic, undisciplined, deceptive, and antisocial. The mask is worn with a hideous costume of dead leaves and rags. The movements of the performer are disjointed, erratic, awkward, and amusing. Gongoli masks are usually owned by private individuals and may appear at any celebration.

Medium: Wood, black pigment, red paint, and fabric
Dimensions: 19 × 15 × 16 1/2 in. (48.3 × 38.1 × 41.91 cm)
Credit Line: Charles B. Benenson, B.A. 1933, Collection
Accession Number: 2006.51.348
Geography: Guinea Coast, Liberia, or Guinea Coast, Sierra Leone
Culture: Mende
Period: 20th century
Classification: Masks
Disclaimer: Note: This electronic record was created from historic documentation that does not necessarily reflect the Yale University Art Gallery’s complete or current knowledge about the object. Review and updating of records is ongoing.

Provenance

A. Timmermans, Brussels [see note 1]: collected in the early 1960's
Marie-Eliane d'Udekem D'Acoz, New York: unknown date - June 12, 1991
Charles B. Benenson Collection, donated to Yale University Art Gallery in 2004

Note 1: A. Timmermans worked and collected for the Tervuren Museum, Belgium. (see curitorial object file)

Bibliography

Frederick John Lamp, Amanda Maples, and Laura M. Smalligan, Accumulating Histories: African Art from the Charles B. Benenson Collection at the Yale University Art Gallery (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Art Gallery, 2012), 228, ill

My Knanh Ngo, "Art Gallery Exhibit Brings Africa to the Elm City," Yale Daily News (January 30, 2007), 5, ill

"Acquisitions, July 1, 2005–June 30, 2006," in "Photography at Yale," special issue, Yale University Art Gallery Bulletin (2006), 222

Frederick John Lamp, "Charles Benenson and His Legacy of African Art to Yale," in "Recent Acquisitions 2001–2003," special issue, Yale University Art Gallery Bulletin (2004), 35, ill

Object copyright

Additional information

Object/Work type

ceremonial objects, masks (costume)

Technical metadata and APIs

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