We

About the book

Exploring the masks of an African culture that were one of Picasso's primary influences. The We, whose name means 'men who easily forgive', live in the forests along the western border of the Ivory Coast. Theirs is regarded as a mask culture, as opposed to other societies that have none (such as the Ashanti in Ghana). The bold, striking sculpture on these masks ensured they would be among the first examples of African art to captivate Cubist artists in the West. These eye-opening, exuberant, phantasmagorical masks are astonishingly diverse and display a dazzling compositional inventiveness. They clearly also influenced the art of neighbouring peoples, to the extent that, far from being isolated in a remote corner of the jungle, this art has been identified as the keystone, the pivot around which all the art of the area revolves giving the lie to the notion that the lines drawn on maps by colonisers have any effect on the process of artistic creation. To which should be added a further crucial point: it is no exaggeration to speak of a mask culture, so abundant are they in each village, with a part to play in all community activities (legal, mystical, agricultural . . . ) and a role in all the stages of life. The nature of this dynamic, mobile art is completely different from the art of other peoples, where form suggests meaning and reveals the impact and the type of ceremony it is associated with; in the case of the We masks, form is never an indicator of category.

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Alain-Michel Boyer Biography

Alain-Michel Boyer studied anthropology and political sciences at the Institut d'Etudes Politiques in Paris. A Fulbright Scholar, he also holds a doctorate from the Sorbonne. He has taught at several universities in the United States. A former member of the Conseil National des Universites in Paris, he is now a professor emeritus of African art. He has done field research on many occasions in the Cote d'Ivoire, Mali, Ghana, Zimbabwe, among other places. Pierluigi Peroni was born in Italy in 1955. He earned a Master's degree in Business and Economics from the Bocconi University in Milan. He currently manages a multinational company. Pierluigi Peroni has always nurtured great love for Africa and African art, which he studies and collects with attention and passion. He often travels to Africa and is a specialisit in African bronzes and African miniatures. He has written several articles and published five books on his collection of African art. He exhibited his collection of Kotoko bronzes in Milan in 2011 and in Belgrade from 2013 to 2014 as well as his collection of African miniatures in Krakow in 2016. ... Read full biography