nkaka Wood, pigments, cloth, plant fibers, raffia height 25in (63.5cm) Provenance Helen and Mace Neufeld Collection, Beverly Hills Sotheby's, New York, 14 November 1989, Lot 219 Roberta and Lance Entwistle Gallery, Paris/London Robert and Nancy Nooter Collection, Washington, D.C. Published Robbins, Warren and Nancy Nooter, African Art in American Collections, Smithsonian Institution, 1989, fig. 1039 The artist of this mask has dexterously created a complex construction of materials to create a masterwork of Yaka art. The dominant, and prominent feature of the face is the large, projecting nose curving upwards in classic Yaka style having phallic connotations; the mask is surmounted by two seated anthropomorphic figures which is extremely rare; the upper portion constructed of plant fiber and cane with four antennae projections around a central spire. According to Arthur Bourgeois, Nkaka means grandfather and the masks are identified by the facial portion encircled in a frame. (Art of the Yaka and Suku, Paris, 1984, p. 136, cat. 127.