The Mask

Even more so than the body, the face has been the great subject for the artist. It is a unique meeting place of the organs by which we sense the external world. It is the small variations in the face that make us each recognizable to or distinguishable from other faces.  The carved face is both reassuring, no matter what its expression, as well as awe-inspiring.  The artist, particularly mask makers in Africa, have always seen the face as though through a mirage of feeling, which reorganizes it into myriad variations. It is a testament to the strength of the human face that in art it remains recognizable and awesome.