Monkey Mask – Wood – Dogon – Mali

This Dogon mask is notable for its remarkably rigorous and architectural form.

This style of mask is known as dege, the name for a black monkey, a creature noted for its unpredictability, gluttony, and general villainy. The dege mask appears in an “obscene or comic performance” which illustrates these character traits (Richards, “What’s in a Dogon Mask”, Res: Anthropology and Aesthetics, Nos. 49 & 50, 2006, p. 108).

For other masks of this type see the example: https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/auction/2019/art-of-africa-oceania-and-the-americas/dogon-mask-mali