Selections from the John A. Welsh III '59 Collection of African Objects

Masks and hair combs are among the most common objects of cultural significance across African nations. Both can be traced back to ancient times with their embellishments and details demonstrating tremendous craftsmanship.

Masks vary in size and are often created and worn for specific, individualized rituals or ceremonies. In some instances, through the act of wearing the mask and performing the ritual, the wearer takes on the role of intermediary between the community and the spirit world. Highly abstract masks such as those on display here were particularly influential in many Western modern art movements including Cubism, Fauvism, and Expressionism.

In West African cultures, the hair comb has functioned as an art object for millennia. While both men and women use hair combs for grooming and embellishment, women's combs are historically more ornate and elaborate. Suitors, friends, or family members would commission combs that marked significant moments in a woman's life such as marriage, childbirth, and similar rites of passage. Typically, combs with more elaborate carving indicate a greater status of the wearer, though some of the larger combs were likely not worn.

Through the carving of specific shapes, patterns, and forms, combs my reference cultural proverbs or convey a particular message. In the United States, similar wider-toothed combs were mass-produced beginning in the late 1960s, in a convergence of function and activism during Civil Rights, Black Power, and Black is Beautiful movements.