Coverings worn over the face or part of the face of an actor to emphasize or neutralize facial characteristics.
Created by the Iroquois, "false face" masks of wood or cornhusks were used in healing ceremonies; typically worn by societies of lay shamans. While false face masks have a strong history, they have been made, traded, and sold almost continuously since the 1800s. Even as late as the 1960s and '70s, the Iroquois were carving false face masks for sale, many of which appear on the market today.
Made almost exclusively of carved wood; very rarely made of copper, and in more recent times of bone and ivory. Usually depict spirit and ancestral figures. Used in storytelling, feasts, and other ceremonial events, most typically during winter seasons when much activity took place indoors. Eskimo masks are among the most collectible of Native American artwork.
Kahlo was called ‘La Gran Oscultadura (the great concealer)’ by friends; • ‘Through her work there is a constant oscillation between masking and unmasking, self-concealment and self-exposure’; • ‘there remain levels of disguise and camouflage in the obscure symbolism’; • ‘Masks feature as intimations of death’ (70). In one self-portrait painting, The Mask 1945, she wears a weeping Malinche mask, identifying herself with the anti-heroine and Mexican ‘Eve’. The emotion of the fake face perhaps conceals Kahlo’s habitually inscrutable expression, thus by adopting a mask, she paradoxically reveals more feeling than she does unmasked. (70).