{
"data": {
"id": 115157,
"accession_number": "1935.304",
"share_license_status": "CC0",
"tombstone": "Mask (Bwoom), mid- to late 1800s. Africa, Central Africa, Democratic Republic of Congo, Kuba-style carver. Wood and paint; overall: 43.3 x 31.2 x 28.3 cm (17 1/16 x 12 5/16 x 11 1/8 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, James Albert Ford Memorial Fund, 1935.304",
"current_location": "108A African",
"title": "Mask (Bwoom)",
"creation_date": "mid- to late 1800s",
"creation_date_earliest": 1850,
"creation_date_latest": 1900,
"artists_tags": [],
"culture": [
"Africa, Central Africa, Democratic Republic of Congo, Kuba-style carver"
],
"technique": "Wood and paint",
"support_materials": [],
"department": "African Art",
"collection": "African Art",
"type": "Mask",
"measurements": "Overall: 43.3 x 31.2 x 28.3 cm (17 1/16 x 12 5/16 x 11 1/8 in.)",
"dimensions": {
"overall": {
"height": 0.433,
"height_inch": 17,
"height_inch_fraction": 0.0625,
"width": 0.312,
"width_inch": 12,
"width_inch_fraction": 0.3125,
"depth": 0.283,
"depth_inch": 11,
"depth_inch_fraction": 0.125
}
},
"state_of_the_work": null,
"edition_of_the_work": null,
"copyright": null,
"inscriptions": [],
"exhibitions": {
"current": [
{
"id": 312341,
"title": "The Silver Jubilee Exhibition",
"description": "The Silver Jubilee Exhibition. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 23-September 28, 1941).",
"opening_date": "1941-06-23T04:00:00"
},
{
"id": 355637,
"title": "The Mask",
"description": "The Mask. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 27, 1951-January 14, 1952).",
"opening_date": "1951-10-27T05:00:00"
},
{
"id": 519209,
"title": "The Imagination of Primitive Man",
"description": "The Imagination of Primitive Man. The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO (organizer) (January 18-February 25, 1962).",
"opening_date": "1962-01-18T05:00:00"
},
{
"id": 207289,
"title": "Perfect Documents: Walker Evans and African Art",
"description": "Perfect Documents: Walker Evans and African Art. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY (organizer) (February 1-September 3, 2000).",
"opening_date": "2000-02-01T00:00:00"
},
{
"id": 181802,
"title": "The Persistence of Geometry: Form, Content and Culture in the Collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art",
"description": "The Persistence of Geometry: Form, Content and Culture in the Collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland (MOCA), Cleveland, OH (June 9-August 20, 2006).",
"opening_date": "2006-06-09T00:00:00"
}
],
"legacy": [
{
"description": "New York, Museum of Modern Art, 1935: \"African Negro Art,\" cat. no. 463, not reproduced",
"opening_date": "1935-01-01T00:00:00"
},
{
"description": "(also to CMA 9/27 - 10/27, 1935),",
"opening_date": "1927-09-01T00:00:00"
},
{
"description": "Toledo, OH, Toledo Museum of Art, February 1 - 22, 1959: \"The African Image,\"cat. no. 164, repr. p. 30.",
"opening_date": "1959-02-01T00:00:00"
},
{
"description": "Kansas City, MO, William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art, 1/18 - 2/25/1962: \"The Imagination of Primitive Man, no. 83.\"",
"opening_date": "1962-02-25T00:00:00"
},
{
"description": "NY: The Metropolitan Museum of Art. \"Perfect Documents: Walker Evans and African Art\" 2/1/00 - 9/3/00",
"opening_date": "2000-02-01T00:00:00"
},
{
"description": "MOCA Cleveland (6/9/2006 - 8/20/2006): \"The Persistence of Geometry: Form, Content and Culture in the Collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art\", no. 44, p. 118, color repr. p. 55.",
"opening_date": "2006-06-09T00:00:00"
}
]
},
"provenance": [
{
"description": "(Charles Ratton Gallery, Paris, France, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": "?\u20131935",
"sortorder": null
},
{
"description": "The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": "1935\u2013",
"sortorder": null
}
],
"find_spot": null,
"related_works": [],
"former_accession_numbers": [
"2500.35"
],
"did_you_know": "Imagine this mask topped with eagle feathers; they would have been added only on special occasions when it was performed.",
"early_education_description": null,
"artlens_description": null,
"description": "Among the Bushoong, the central Kuba group, the mask known as bwoom\u2014most typically identified as the head of a hunter-gatherer\u2014forms a triad with a female mask and another male mask. All three are protagonists in the reenactment of the foundation of the Kuba kingdom. Outside the capital, however, bwoom appears in different non-royal contexts, such as the men\u2019s initiation society.",
"external_resources": {
"wikidata": [],
"internet_archive": [
"https://archive.org/details/clevelandart-1935.304-mask-bwoom"
]
},
"citations": [
{
"citation": "Franklin, David and C. Griffith Mann. Treasures from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland: The Cleveland Museum of Art; London: Scala Publishers Ltd, 2012. pg. 238-9.",
"page_number": "",
"url": ""
},
{
"citation": "Museum of Modern Art (New York, N.Y.), and James Johnson Sweeney. African Negro Art. New York: Museum of Modern Art, 1935.",
"page_number": "Mentioned: p. 52, no. 463",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Handbook. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1958.",
"page_number": "Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 387",
"url": "https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1958/page/n72"
},
{
"citation": "Plass, Margaret. The African Image: A New Selection of Tribal Art : the Toledo Museum of Art ... February 1 Through 22, 1959 : Introduction and Catalogue. Toledo, Ohio: The Museum, 1959.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: p. 30, no. 164",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Arts, and Ralph T. Coe. The Imagination of Primitive Man: A Survey of the Arts of the Non-Literate Peoples of the World. Kansas City, Mo: The Museum, 1962.",
"page_number": "Mentioned: p. 11, 46, cat. no. 83",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Robbins, Warren M. African Art in American Collections = L'art Africain Dans Les Collections Americaines. New York : F. A. Praeger, 1966.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: p. 211, pl. 300",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: p. 303",
"url": "https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1966/page/n327"
},
{
"citation": "The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: p. 303",
"url": "https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1969/page/n327"
},
{
"citation": "The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: p. 412",
"url": "https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1978/page/n432"
},
{
"citation": "Connell, Timothy C., and Jackson J. Spielvogel. World Art Transparencies. Cincinnati: West Educational Pub., 1998.",
"page_number": "Mentioned: p. 34; Reproduced no. 42",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Webb, Virginia-Lee, and Walker Evans. Perfect Documents: Walker Evans and African Art, 1935. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: p. 24, fig. 15; Reproduced: p. 26, fig. 18",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Petridis, Constantijn. South of the Sahara: selected works of African art. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2003.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: cat. 35, p. 100 - 101",
"url": ""
},
{
"citation": "Petridis, Constantine, \"African Art Revisited\", Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland Art: The Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine. Vol. 43 no. 09, November 2003",
"page_number": "Mentioned & reproduced: p. 4-5",
"url": "https://archive.org/details/CMAMM2003-09/page/n3"
},
{
"citation": "Robbins, Warren M.. African sculpture. Atglen, PA: Schiffer Pub., 2005.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: p. 211, pl. 300",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Buser, Thomas. Experiencing Art Around Us. Australia: Thomson Wadsworth, 2006.",
"page_number": "Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 433, fig. 17-22",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Sims, Lowery Stokes. The Persistence of Geometry: Form, Content, and Culture in the Collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2006.",
"page_number": "Mentioned and reproduced: P. 55, no. 44",
"url": ""
},
{
"citation": "Petridis, Constantine. \"A World of Great Art for Everyone.\" In Representing Africa in American Art Museums: A Century of Collecting and Display. Kathleen Bickford Berzock and Christa Clarke, 104-121. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2011.",
"page_number": "Mentioned: p. 112; Reproduced: p. 113, fig. 5.7",
"url": null
}
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"creditline": "James Albert Ford Memorial Fund",
"image_credit": null,
"sketchfab_id": null,
"sketchfab_url": null,
"gallery_donor_text": null,
"athena_id": 115157,
"creators": [],
"legal_status": "accessioned",
"accession_date": "1935-10-24T00:00:00",
"sortable_date": 1850,
"date_added_to_oa": null,
"date_text": "mid- to late 1800s",
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"alternate_titles": [
"Headdress (bwoom)",
"Helmet Mask (Bwoom)"
],
"is_highlight": false,
"updated_at": "2026-05-29 06:01:41.423000"
}
}