New African Masquerades: Artistic Innovations and Collaborations highlights the stories of four contemporary masquerade artists, their motivations, artistic choices, and the patronage and economic networks with which they engage. Through the presentation of works of Chief Ekpenyong Bassey Nsa (Nigeria), David Sanou (Burkina Faso), Sheku “Goldenfinger” Fofanah (Sierra Leone), and Hervé Youmbi (Cameroon), the exhibition offers fresh research models for contemporary masquerade, bringing to the fore issues relating to ownership and research ethics.
A collaboration between an international team of scholars and artists, this is the first major exhibition on contemporary West African masquerade artists to focus on individual creators rather than the typical presentation of masquerades as products of entire cultures, which undermines the nuanced and layered stories that individual artists and masquerades tell.
New African Masquerades: Artistic Innovations and Collaborations is organized by the New Orleans Museum of Art, in partnership with Musée des Civilisations noires in Dakar, Senegal, and received generous support from the National Endowment for the Humanities
Exhibition gallery
Hervé Youmbi. Tso Scream Mask, Visages de masques (IX) series, 2015–23. Wood, pigment, fiber, beads, textile, glue, velvet and cotton fabric, silk embroidery, and horsehair. Collection of the New Orleans Museum of Art, museum purchase, Robert P. Gordy Fund, 2023.38.1- .7. Image courtesy of the New Orleans Museum of Art. Photo: Hervé Youmbi
Sheku “Goldenfinger” Fofanah with Dezo Sesay, tailor. Jollay Society “Fairy” Masquerade Ensemble, 2023. Commissioned for Fitchburg Art Museum. Image courtesy of the New Orleans Museum of Art. Photo: Sesthasak Boonchai
Chief Ekpenyong Bassey Nsa. Afia Awan Masquerade Ensemble, 2022. Polyester fabric, racia, leather; life-size. Collection of the New Orleans Museum of Art, museum purchase, Françoise Billion Richardson Fund, 2022.85.a-.h. Image courtesy of the New Orleans Museum of Art. Photo: Sesthasak Boonchai
Sheku “Goldenfinger” Fofanah with Dezo Sesay, tailor. Jollay Society “Fairy” Masquerade Ensemble (detail), 2023. Commissioned for Fitchburg Art Museum. Image courtesy of the New Orleans Museum of Art. Photo: Sesthasak Boonchai
A Kimi mask (headpiece carved by David Sanou in the studio of André Sanou) dancing in Nasso, Burkina Faso (detail), April 22, 2015. Image courtesy of the New Orleans Museum of Art. Photo: Lisa Homann
David Sanou (headpiece carved in the studio of André Sanou); the maker of the body requests anonymity. Kimi Masquerade Ensemble in Honor of André Sanou’s “Qui Dit Mieux?”, 2022. Wood, fibers, glue, synthetic dyes, and paints; dimensions variable. Commissioned for Fitchburg Art Museum in 2022. Image courtesy of the New Orleans Museum of Art. Photo: Sesthasak Boonchai
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