Masque, Kwele, Gabon/Congo (région de Sembé)

Collection Raoul Lehuard, Paris, acquis ca. 1970
Philippe Ratton, Paris
Collection privée, Paris, acquis ca. 1987

Nîmes, Chapelle des Jésuites, Masques d’Afrique, 23 mai - 22 juin 1986

Bastin, Introduction aux Arts d’Afrique Noire, 1984, p. 261, n° 271
Lehuard et Tiérou, Masques d’Afrique, 1986, p. 59

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Les masques-antilopes comptent parmi les plus rares témoins de l'éminent corpus des masques Kwele, célébrés depuis leur découverte à la fin des années 1920 pour la modernité de leur conception plastique et picturale.  

Nommés ekuk - signifiant à la fois « esprit de la forêt » et « enfant de beete » -, ces masques-antilopes constituaient chez les Kwele de puissants symboles de cohésion sociale. Ils s'inscrivaient dans le cadre du culte du beete, présidant au sein de chaque village à l'unité des lignages et à l'autorité de son fondateur. Représentant une antilope duiker, ils évoquaient la quête collective que représentait, pour les jeunes hommes, la chasse dans la forêt et la validation, par ses esprits, des rites du beete (Siroto, Masks and social organization among the Bakwele people of Western Equatorial Africa, 1970, p. 213).    

Leur corpus restreint se trouve aujourd'hui essentiellement conservé dans des collections muséales : musée Barbier-Mueller (inv. n° 1019-49, in Schmalenbach, 1988, p. 210, n° 127), British Museum (Trowell et Nevermann, 1968, p. 70), musée Dapper (collecté par Aristide Courtois avant 1938, in Falgayrettes-Leveau, 1995, p. 61), au Kulturen Museum de Lund (inv. n° 51.467.113) et l’Ethnografiscka Museum de Gothenburg (Leuzinger, 1970, p. 241, pl. Q9).

Celui-ci se distingue par sa beauté radicalement épurée, accentuée par la luminosité de la surface picturale. La limpidité du geste sculptural naît ici du parfait équilibre des formes, contraintes par les plans facettés qui les délimitent et exaltées par l'ample mouvement des cornes.

Kwele mask, Gabon/Congo (Sembe region)

Antelope masks are amongst the rarest specimens within the eminent corpus of Kwele masks, which have been celebrated since their discovery in the 1920s for the modernity of their visual and pictorial design.

Named ekuk - which means both "forest spirit" and "child of beete" - these antelope masks were powerful symbols of social cohesion for the Kwele. They were part of the cult of beete, presiding over the unity of each lineage and over the authority of the founder in each village.  They represented a duiker antelope and evoked the young men's collective quest, hunting in the forest, and validation, by these spirits, of the beete rituals. (Siroto, Masks and social organization among the Bakwele people of Western Equatorial Africa, 1970, p. 213).

Their narrow corpus is now essentially kept in museum collections: at the musée Barbier-Mueller (inv. No. 1019-49, in Schmalenbach, 1988, p. 210, No. 127), the British Museum (Trowell and Nevermann, 1968, p. 70), the musée Dapper (Collected by Aristide Courtois prior to 1938, in Falgayrettes-Leveau, 1995, p. 61), the Kulturen Museum in Lund (inv. No. 51.467.113) and the Ethnografiscka Museum of Gothenburg (Leuzinger, 1970, p. 241, pl. Q9).

This one stands out for its radically pared-down beauty, emphasized by the luminosity of its pictorial surface. In this piece, the flawless composure of the sculpture arises from the perfect balance of forms, constrained by the faceted planes which delineate their outline and exalted by the ample sweep of the horns.