Sidney and Lois Eskenazi Museum of Art

1983, Gift to the Indiana University Art Museum from Richard M. Cohen, Los Angeles, CA

Unidentified date, Richard M. Cohen acquires [1]

Unidentified dates, unidentified owner(s), possibly in Chokwe culture, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Angola, and/or other places [2]

Notes
[1] Richard M. Cohen did not provide the museum with any further provenance documentation.

[2] We do not yet know how many changes in ownership transpired between when this artwork was initially made and owned to when Richard M. Cohen acquired it. This absence of documentation on ownership history within Chokwe culture in present-day Democratic Republic of the Congo and Angola where pwo masks like this one were made and used is part of a larger history of collecting practices that did not record prior ownership among communities of origin.

Provenance research is ongoing for this and many other items in the Eskenazi Museum of Art permanent collection. For more information about the provenance of this artwork, please contact the department curator with specific questions.

April 6–September 8, 2024, “Interlacing in African Textiles,” African Textile Gallery Exhibition, Eskenazi Museum of Art, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN

Viewing Information
This artwork is currently on view.