LATEST EVENT PICTURES Gallery Selection :     
  Current Gallery:  World Masks
  Description:  World masks
 
 
A stylization of the status make-up of the moran, or warriors, of the Maasai and Samburu - traditional nomadic herdsmen of Kenya, Africa. Their elevated status allows the young men time to decorate themselves through costume, hair and body art.
The famous Monkey King make-up of the Chines Opera. When I first painted eyes on the eyelids of a woman who wanted to be a tiger I thought Id invented something. The Monkey King had been doing that trick for 200 years.
Gods and mythic beings come to life through elaborate make-up in the Kathakali and other theaters of Kerala, India. This design is Arjuna Niritamm for the Atham celebrations at Tirupunthura
This facepainting is from a famous wooden mask of the Haida in British Columbia from the late 1800s
From a George Catlin painting of 1845, an Ojibwa chief called strong wind with a hand image over his mouth.
A mix of images from the Amazon section of
There is a golden lionheaded helmut of some Medieval Duke in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, it harkens back to Hercules and Nemedian Lion. There are also the jaguar helmuted ceramic figures of Mayan warriors
This is the facepainted version of a Mexican mask which supposively depicted an Aztec ceremony in which competitors danced with a live snake in their mouths. From the Cervantino Festival in Guanajuato, Mexico
A design from a wonderful photo in the book “African Ceremonies” of Surma women painting each other for annual festivals. The men, women and children paint themselves primarily in geometric patterns of dots and lines with chalks and ochre pigments.
A spooky face from a contemporary example of a Namahage demon mask from the Akita Prefecture in Japan. Japanese traditions and folktales include some great descriptions of demons, goblins and monsters as a source for facepainting imagery.
Chinese Opera makeup traditions go back hundreds of years and depict gods, monsters, heroes, villains, clowns and animals. The asymmetrical swirling lines of this Peking Opera styled design give it a sense of motion as if the face is still in transition.
In the book “Man As Art”, Malcolm Kirk presents extraordinary photographs of painted people from Papua New Guinea. We paint such traditional designs on people at events to learn from them and to keep this ancient art alive in our modern world.
 

© 2001-2004 Christopher Agostino.
 
 
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