Masque, Kwélé, Gabon

collects é par Léon Lafosse, ingénieur à Pointe Noire, avant 1928
Transmis par descendance familiale
Alain de Monbrison, Paris
collects ion privée

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A la perfection géométrique de la forme, l'artiste a associé le choix d'un graphisme épuré, aboutissant à une œuvre d'une absolue modernité. L'équilibre des traits, structurés par la ligne pointillée épanouissant le regard des yeux plissés, s'anime dans la tension des courbes et des délicates ruptures de plans, et dans la dynamique des motifs en flèches. La teinte sombre du pourtour profond et les lignes noires pyrogravées se détachent sur la très belle teinte brun orangé de la patine, ajoutant à la sculpture une dimension picturale.

Les masques Kwélé - intervenant dans le culte du beete - forment dans les arts du Gabon un corpus extrêmement restreint comparé à celui des Fang, Punu et Kota. Selon la classification établie par Leon Siroto, les masques circulaires relèvent de la catégorie des pipibudzé - représentant les esprits de la forêt ekuk - et servent d'intermédiaires entre le monde de la brousse et celui du village. Selon Louis Perrois (2001 : 90) « il semble en outre que les maisons de culte ou d'initiation du beete, même provisoires (pour la durée des festivités), aient été « décorées » de masques [aux formes et dans un bois dense mi-lourd similaires], qui ne dansaient pas" - type auquel, selon toute vraisemblance, se rattache ce masque.

Comme celui-ci, la plupart des masques Kwélé ont été collects és entre 1920 et 1935, "époque où les sculpteurs étaient encore en pleine possession de leurs capacités techniques et artistiques". cf. Siroto (1972 : 71) pour un masque très apparenté dans la collects ion Leon Siroto.

Kwele mask, Gabon

The sculptor of the offered mask has combined a perfect geometric form with a pure graphic quality to create a work of modernist style. The balanced features are structured around the dotted lines which encircle the eyes and are animated by the tense curves and breaks in the planes of the surface. The dark colour around the edge of mask and the finely incised black lines stand out against the fine warm brown patina, and they give the mask a pictorial quality.

Kwele masks used by the beete cult form a very small part of the corpus of works of art from Gabon, especially when compared with works by the Fang, Punu, and Kota. Léon Siroto's system of classification places circular masks such as the offered lot in the category of pipibudzé, which represent the spirits of the forest, known as ekuk. These masks serve as intermediaries between the world of the bush and of the village. According to Perrois (2001: 90) 'it also appears that the cult houses used for beete initiation ceremonies were 'decorated' with masks, at least for the duration of the festivities'. These masks were made of a similar dense and heavy wood and were not danced. In all likelihood the offered mask belongs to this type.

As is the case here, the majority of Kwele masks were collects ed between 1920 and 1935, a period when Kwele 'sculptors were still in full possession of their artistic and technical abilities'. Cf. Siroto (1972: 71) for a closely related mask from the collects ion of Léon Siroto.