Powerful Lipico Mask Depicting Mature Woman

According to Alexander Bortolot, “Masks that appear grotesque or deformed came into popularity in northern Mozambique in the 1950s. Makonde artists such as Shumu and Lipato, among the most famous mapiko artists of their generation, invented masks like these for use in new mapiko choreographies based either in foreign dance forms they observed in southern Tanzania while working there as laborers, or in comical and ridiculous scenarios drawn from life – a hunter with a horrible eye infection or a fisherman with a fishbone stuck in his throat.” This mask depicts an elderly woman with a lip plug, a bump on her head and a contentious expression. She would have been danced by a male dancer in costume as a character in a performative drama witnessed by dozens or even hundreds of people sitting and standing close to the action. Musical instruments, mostly drums and percussive metal tools, would have set the mood and rhythm.

12″ H

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