-
Artworks
Lwena Artist
Mask, pwevo, Late 19th-early 20th centuryAngola
Wood, fiber, beads
Height: 12 1/4 inches (31.2 cm)
Provenance:
Collected by Maurice Matton in Kinda, Kamina territory, South Shaba 1939
Ex collection Annie and Jean-Pierre Jernander, Brussels
de Quay/Lombrail, Paris, Collection A. et J.-P. Jernander, 26 June 1996
Ex collection Michael Oliver, New York
Sotheby's, New York. African, Oceanic and Pre-Columbian Art. 15 May 2015. Lot 114
Ex private collection, New York
Published:
Bastin, Marie-Louise, "L'Art d'un Peuple d'Angola, II: Lwena ", African Arts, Vol. II, no.2, 1969, cover
Leuzinger, Elsy. Die Kunst von Schwarz-Afrika. Zürich: Kunsthaus Zürich, 1970. p. 294, #U21
Leuzinger, Elsy. The Art of Black Africa. Greenwich, CT: New York Graphic Society, 1972. p. 310-311, fig. U22
Leuzinger, Elsy. Die Kunst von Schwarz-Afrika. Recklinhausen: Aurel Bongers, 1972. p. 310-311, fig.U22
Winizki, Ernst. Gesichter Afrikas: Visages d'Afrique: Faces of Africa. Zürich: Kunstkreis, Luzern, 1972. p. 170-171
Exhibited:
Die Kunst von Schwarz-Afrika, Kunsthaus Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland. 31 October 1970-17 January 1971
Oerkunsten van zwart Afrika/Arts Premiers d'Afrique Noire. Crédit Communal de Belgique, Brussels, Belgium. 5 March-17 April 1977
Collected in 1939 by Maurice Matton at Kinda and first published in 1969 on the cover of African Arts, the Jernander Lwena Mask is a masterpiece of Angolan art, epitomizing the finest qualities of classic Lwena aesthetics. With its blend of curvilinear naturalism, cubist abstraction and beautiful exposition of the natural color and grain of the wood medium, this is the finest Lwena mask in existence.
In comparison to other old Lwena masks the Jernander Mask is distinguished by its exceptionally refined, delicate features. Deeply-incised geometric symbols, signs of ideal feminine beauty, adorn the face, which is bracketed on either side by C-shaped ears in high relief. In characteristic Lwena style, the sculptor has chosen to showcase the natural color and grain of the wood, which has gained a rich patina from a long period of handling and use.
Lwena pwevo masks were part of a complex masquerade, integral to pre-colonial Lwena cosmology.
Owing to the small population of the Lwena people, Lwena art is extremely rare.
Further images
