We.
5 Continents| N° d'inventaire | 22415 |
| Format | 17 x 25 |
| Détails | 126 p., bound. |
| Publication | Milan, 2020 |
| Etat | Nine |
| ISBN | 9788874398676 |
The We live in the forests on the western border of Côte d'Ivoire. Their name means "men who forgive easily." In the social life of this people, the family unit plays an important role. Each family is led by a patriarch, revered for his wisdom and wealth, who is responsible for overseeing the life of the clan. He arranges marriages, settles conflicts, and influences religious life. Long known by other names (Guere, Wobe, Kran), the We live on both sides of the border between Liberia and Côte d'Ivoire - and are therefore considered, in both countries, as a "peripheral" population. They are a civilization of masks, the opposite of other societies that lack them (such as the Ashanti in Ghana). Their masks, however, through their plastic boldness, were among the first to captivate Cubist artists in the West. Kahnweiler, Picasso's famous art dealer, recounted that the artist owned a Wobe mask and that it was precisely his study that pushed Picasso toward such innovative developments. Unusual, exuberant, phantasmagorical, their masks surprised by their diversity and dazzling formal inventiveness. They also influenced the works of neighboring peoples. To the point that their art, far from being isolated, apart, lost in the forest, appears as a keystone, a pivot - if we stop believing that creation obeys colonial divisions. With this major observation: it is indeed a civilization of masks, so abundant are they in each village. Governing all domains (legal, mystical, agricultural), they participate in the multiple phases of life. This evolving, mobile art implies a fundamental difference compared to the creations of other peoples, among whom morphology easily determines the meaning, the scope, the type of ceremonies: among the We, the form never really allows the work to be placed in a category.
The We live in the forests on the western border of Côte d'Ivoire. Their name means "men who forgive easily." In the social life of this people, the family unit plays an important role. Each family is led by a patriarch, revered for his wisdom and wealth, who is responsible for overseeing the life of the clan. He arranges marriages, settles conflicts, and influences religious life. Long known by other names (Guere, Wobe, Kran), the We live on both sides of the border between Liberia and Côte d'Ivoire - and are therefore considered, in both countries, as a "peripheral" population. They are a civilization of masks, the opposite of other societies that lack them (such as the Ashanti in Ghana). Their masks, however, through their plastic boldness, were among the first to captivate Cubist artists in the West. Kahnweiler, Picasso's famous art dealer, recounted that the artist owned a Wobe mask and that it was precisely his study that pushed Picasso toward such innovative developments. Unusual, exuberant, phantasmagorical, their masks surprised by their diversity and dazzling formal inventiveness. They also influenced the works of neighboring peoples. To the point that their art, far from being isolated, apart, lost in the forest, appears as a keystone, a pivot - if we stop believing that creation obeys colonial divisions. With this major observation: it is indeed a civilization of masks, so abundant are they in each village. Governing all domains (legal, mystical, agricultural), they participate in the multiple phases of life. This evolving, mobile art implies a fundamental difference compared to the creations of other peoples, among whom morphology easily determines the meaning, the scope, the type of ceremonies: among the We, the form never really allows the work to be placed in a category.