A PramPram mask, of oval shape carved out of one piece of light wood, composed in a minimal aesthetic of small orifices geometrically placed around two rounded eyes, and a round hollowed mouth, pierced through.

It is the first PramPram mask, we have collected, never seen before in a publication. But no doubt about it: It's authentic. May be comparable to the masks of the Lobi, who also have no mask tradition, but whose altars still have masks. influenced by ethnic groups using masks in dance ceremonies.

Baba Sylla, once the dealer of Karl Heinz Krieg, Germany, who brought the first extremly rare PramPram sculptures to the West.

"A great discovery were the so called "Prampram" sculptures, which are stylistically related to the Northern part of the small tribes in Northern Ghana and Togo, in particular the Moba. In my interview Baba Sylla, Accra, Ghana, isn't speaking about a "tribe“, he named it "a great family", which seems to be incorrect under anthropological aspects, but it is a link to the fact, how small this "tribe" is or was in reality. May be this is the reason that these sculptures are unknown in literature. Only Karl-Heinz Krieg (short before his death) conducted unpublished researches with voice protocols close to the hut, where these sculptures were once part of a shrine. But a friend of him told me that Mr. Krieg had no possibility to access the hut."

Lit.: Dogbe, B.K. (1977). “The human form as a central theme in art” in Image (Journal of the College of Art), Interview with Baba Sylla, the well known Antique dealer in Accra, Ghana, who collected these sculptures the first time.

Fieldphoto, Karl Heinz Krieg, around 2010, in front of the house of Baba Sylla with his.

"A great discovery were the so called Prampram sculptures, which are stylistically related to the Northern part of the small tribes in Northern Ghana and Togo, in particular the Moba. In my interview Baba Sylla, Accra, Ghana, isn´t speaking about a "tribe“, he named it "a great family", which seems to be incorrect under anthropological aspects, but it is a link to the fact, how small this "tribe" is or was in reality. May be this is the reason that these sculptures are unknown in literature. Only Karl-Heinz Krieg (short before his death) conducted unpublished researches with voice protocols close to the hut, where these sculptures were once part of a shrine. But a friend of him told me that Mr. Krieg had no possibility to access the hut."

Lit.: Dogbe, B.K., The human form as a central theme in art. In: Image (Journal of the College of Art), Kumasi 1977; Wolfgang Jaenicke, Neue Prampram Figuren entdeckt. Wolfgang Jaenicke, Interview with Baba Sylla, the well known Antique dealer in Accra, Ghana, who collected tese.

sold

Height: 24 cm
Weight: 310 g