Mask for circumcision ceremonies Boyo-Bembe people, DR Congo (South Kivu) Wood with original polychromy Height: 28 cm. Provenance: Reportedly acquired from Chief Mawazo by Pierre Dartevelle in 1975 Philippe Guimiot, Brussels (1986) Collection of Count Baudouin de Grunne Private collection Publications : Philippe Guimiot, Arts d'Afrique Noire, n° 59, 1986 Jean-Baptiste Bacquart, The Tribal Arts of Africa, Thames & Hudson, London, 1998, p. 154 The rare masks from the Bembe cultural area of South Kivu have been described as being used during circumcision ceremonies and subsequent initiation rites of passage to adulthood[1]. The physiognomy of this mask is in keeping with the canons presiding over the great classical styles of the region, particularly in the treatment of the face in two volumes articulating at eye level. The fine crenellated beard on the cheeks symbolises the chin strap that once held the ritual headdress of initiates, a feature that characterises most figures of both male and female Bembe ancestors[2]. The white and red two-colour process, whose fine original condition cannot be faulted, divides the face into four equal registers in a graphic script used for a time in the West by the Suprematist painter Kasimir Malevich. Bernard Dulon [1] Pol Pierre Gossiaux in Masks in Congo, Marc Léo Félix, Hong Kong, 2016 [2] Viviane Baeke, Une effigie d'ancêtre, chef-d'œuvre de l'art funéraire bembé, Binoche et Giquello, March 2018, no. 54.