Monkey Mask – Wood – Dogon – Mali

Powerfull and stylistic wooden mask from the Dogon tribe of 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).