York's Shona Gallery presents the "Fang Mask" by the Fang tribe of Cameroon. Its small, dark face is carved near the top of a long, narrow plank of wood, and its features are outlined in black.
The mask is hand carved from wood and was made in 1987. The wood has a warm, natural orange-tan tone.
Fang masks are worn by itinerant troubadours. They are also used for hunting and punishing sorcerers.
Fang masks were acquired and relished by modernist artists such as Picasso and Matisse. The African pieces, Picasso said, helped him to understand his purpose as a painter, which was not to entertain with decorative images, but to meditate between perceived reality and the creativity of the human mind--to be freed or "exorcised" from fear of the unknown by giving form to it.
