About the lot N° 2502
Title : A Fine Bamana Facemask, Ntomo
Notes : Provenance:Mort LipkinExhibited:Governors State University, IL, 2003Krannert Art Museum, IL, 2003Belger Art Foundation/University of Missouri-Kansas City, MO, 2004Tall Grass Art Association, IL, 2005Published:Bourgeois and Rodolitz, REMNANTS OF RITUAL: SELECTIONS FROM THE GELBARD COLLECTION OF AFRICAN ART, Ethnos, New York, 2003, p.2, fig.3One of the six best known of Bamana religious associations, Ntomo is a mutual aid association concerned with the education of young uncircumcised boys. Members wear a wooden face mask during the initiation festival at harvest time and when begging for rice. The number of horns on such masks (two to eight) symbolizes levels of increased knowledge of a human being.
