Masque, Bamana, Mali

Sotheby’s, Londres, 30 mars 1987, n° 49
Philippe Ratton - Daniel Hourdé, Paris
Collection André Schoeller, Paris
Collection privée, acquis ca. 1990

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Tous les sept ans, à la fin de la saison sèche, « tous les membres d’une classe d’âge sont symboliquement ‘tués au koré’ pour ressusciter en tant qu’adultes » (Colleyn, Bamana, 2009, p. 28). Tout autant que la signification dont ils sont investis, les masques du koré - et en particulier le masque hyène suruku - s’imposent par la force qu’ils génèrent. Elle redouble ici dans l’exceptionnelle représentation d’une seconde tête, jaillissant du front de l’animal principal.

Avec une remarquable audace plastique, l’artiste a visuellement traduit dans ce masque-double, tant l’instabilité symbolique de la hyène - animal thaumaturge, à la fois craint et respecté – que ses qualités hors du commun, « liées à une extraordinaire vitalité et à un grand savoir, signifiés par le front de l’animal, l’arête vive du nez, la crête [touffe de poils prélevée par le chasseur, censée renfermer une force vengeresse mortelle], la force de la mâchoire » (idem, p. 31).

A la force doublement signifiée répond l’intelligence des formes. Chacune, résumée à son épure géométrique, se répond et se renforce dans la parfaite articulation des volumes rigoureusement architecturés. Les masques-doubles suruku sont rares et celui-ci en constitue l’expression la plus remarquablement aboutie. Voir Colleyn (Bamana, Un art et un savoir-vivre au Mali, 2002, p. 122, n° 108 et 109) pour deux masques d'iconographie comparable, attribués par l'auteur à la région de Koulikoro.

Bamana mask, Mali

Once every seven years, at the end of the dry season, "all members of
an age group are symbolically 'killed with a kore' to subsequently be resurrected as adults" (Colleyn, Bamana, 2009, p. 28). Just as much as their
significance, the kore masks — and particularly the suruku hyena mask — stand out for the forceful effect they produce. It is twice as marked here due to the exceptional representation of a second head, growing out from the main animal's forehead.

With remarkable artistic audacity, the artist visually translated into this double-mask the both the hyena's symbolic instability — a thaumaturge animal, both feared and respected — and its unusual qualities, "associated with extraordinary vitality and great knowledge, as represented through the forehead of the animal, the sharp edge of the nose, the crest [tuft of hair picked by the hunter and supposed to contain a deadly vengeful force], and the strength of the jaw" (ibid, p. 31).

The doubly-signified strength is echoed in the formal intelligence. Each outline, pared down to its simplest geometry, is answered and reinforced in the perfect articulation of the rigorously structured volumes. Suruku double
masks are rare, and this one stands out as their most remarkably accomplished expression. See Colleyn (Bamana, Un art et un savoir-vivre au Mali, 2002, p. 122, No. 108 et 109) for two masks with a similar iconography, attributed by the author to the Koulikoro region.