African mask antiques tribal Face vintage Wood Carved Hanging Grebo Kru-4421

31.5/16.7 CM
African art from the banks of the Cavally and its fantastic masks. Four tubular pupils reflecting extra lucid faculties mask , a rectangular volume for the mouth, and a wide forehead surmounted mask : these fascinating kru masks evoke a fantastic world. Polychrome speckled patina. The Kru are divided into twenty-four subgroups, including the Grebo, which are located in southern Liberia and southwestern Côte d'Ivoire. Their leader is the bodio, who lives in a hut, the takae. Their masks with tubular excrescences would be of oubi origin, and could symbolize the mythical creatures which populate the forests of the banks of the Cavally, to which the people address themselves through ritual ceremonies. The interest of cubist painters and modern sculptors for the abstract forms of the Grebo mask could be read in some of their works, such as Picasso's metal guitar in 1914..