The Guro tribe numbering 200.000 members moved in the 16th century from the north to the Ivory Coast and then called itself Kweni. The name Guro was given them between 1906 and 1912 by the French colonial rulers.
The Guro art is highly elegant and dominated by beautiful masks with sustained oval faces and almond shaped eyes, often finely sinewed and more subtley designed than those of the neighbouring Baule.
This very decorative piece promotes itself without doubt with its elegant quality . The dark brilliant surface of the antelope’s head sets itself apart quite distinctivelyfrom the attachment behind, which gives the mask an impressive three-dimensionality.
It has been in a very formal orientated Hamburg private collection since the 1990s.
|
