Material Wood, kaolin, and dark brown pigments
Dimensions 32 cm
Place of Creation Gabon
Status Vetted

About the Work

A "Ngo Ntang" Mask, Fang People, Gabon.

Carved in a lightweight wood showing a very fine aged patina of use with traces of kaolin, and dark brown pigments.


The white Ngo Ntang masks (literally "the young white woman"), collected between the second half of the 19th century through the early 20th century in Fang communities across present-day northern Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, and southern Cameroon, were used in masquerades to fight witchcraft and treat illness; they contributed to the social regulation of Fang villages.


Among the most admired and sought-after works of African art, Fang masks fascinated and inspired avant-garde artists and intellectuals of the early 20th century such as Paul Guillaume, Pablo Picasso, André Derain and Georges Braque with their highly-stylized, cubist forms.


The corpus of Fang masks is very rare and this unique "Ngo Ntang" mask, with its minimalist design, is a marvel of harmony and geometry.

Show moreless

Provenance

- Congrégation du Saint-Esprit (Congregatio Sancti Spiritus) Collection, Abbaye Blanche de Mortain, France, before 1931,
- Armand Charles Collection, Paris, France,
- Private Collection, France.

Literature

- "Exposition Internationale", May 6, 1931 – November 15, 1931, Porte Dorée, Paris, France; photographed in situ.
- "Objets et Mondes", Revue du Musée de l'Homme, Paris, Spring 1965, page 60,
- "Afrique, à l'ombre des dieux", Somogy Editions, Paris, 2017, page 58.

View artwork at TEFAF Maastricht 2025

View Full Floorplan