Brooklyn Museum's Detective Work Reveals Original Owners of African Mask

THE ART NEWSPAPER 
By Nancy Kenney

Egungun costume (around 1920 to 1948) at the Brooklyn Museum Courtesy of the Brooklyn Museu

With its colourful swirling fabric panels, the African Yorùbá masquerade costume known as the egúngún mask is both a potent symbol of belief and a source of entertainment. Worn by a ritual performer to summon and honour the spirits of ancestors, it testifies to a family’s wealth and design sense, with each of the textiles adding a layer of nuance and status. For Kristen Windmuller-Luna, a curator of African art at the Brooklyn Museum, the costume has also been a brain-teaser of sorts, posing stubborn questions about provenance and history. One: Egúngún, Brooklyn Museum, New York, 8 February-18 August [More]