African Arts Gallery

French African art collection.
A female face surmounted by sculpted animal motifs including a serpent's tail running along the contours of the mask. Brilliant polychrome patina, flange at the back of the mask used to hold it by the mouth during entertainment dances.
Among the group of Mande from the south, in the center of Côte d'Ivoire, the Gouro have used since the 1950s a family of African masks associated with the dance Zaouli . Indeed, like the Goli masks of the Baoulé, all the Guro masks come in two zoomorphic masks followed by a third anthropomorphic, which is considered to be the wife of the zamblé mask, the Gu . The Gu, whose function is apotropaic, represents a young woman endowed with the criteria of beauty specific to the Guro. It is while singing in honor of the zamblé that the Gu moves gracefully, following the sound of the flute.