Masks 2008

Jos van den Berg

 

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The subject of masks in art is a familiar one. Artists, such as Matisse, Picasso and Miro, but also the poet André Breton and many others were inspired by the masks and images from African countries and Oceania. Picasso's cubist masterpiece The Young ladies of Avignon (1906) was derived directly from the visual language of Africa. As early as the beginning of the 19th century, there was already a busy trade in ethnographics in de European capitals Paris, Brussels, London and Berlin – as a result of their relationships with the colonies and Oceania. Figures, masks and shields found their way to museums and collectors. But the powerful forms and imagery, in particular obsessed artists. They were portrayed on many old studio photographs.

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