Hemba Mask
1 of 4
Object Label
Modernizing the Urban Landscape
By the late 1920s, signs of modernization and industrialization were intruding on the residential neighborhood of Brooklyn Heights, where Isabel Lydia Whitney grew up. The Emerald Tower and The Blue Peter are part of a series of works Whitney painted about 1927 of the changing area. Exhibited in 1928, the series was praised for its honest depiction of the American scene and “the poignancy of transition.”
In The Emerald Tower, the iconic Brooklyn Bridge is relegated to the far distance, and the painting is dominated instead by the new Squibb building, part of a manufacturing plant for a pharmaceutical company. The masts, smokestacks, and rigging seen in The Blue Peter hint at the encroachment of waterfront commerce.
Caption
Suku; possibly Kwese. Hemba Mask, 20th century. Wood, raffia, pigment, 26 x 21 in. (66.0 x 53.3 cm) height of head and animal: 16 1/2 in. (41.9 cm) width of head: 9 in. (22.9 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Dr. and Mrs. Abbott A. Lippman, 85.143. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 85.143_SL1.jpg)
Gallery
Not on view
Collection
Gallery
Not on view
Collection
Cultures
Title
Hemba Mask
Date
20th century
Geography
Possible place made: Uíge Province, Angola, Possible place made: Kwango Province, Democratic Republic of the Congo
Medium
Wood, raffia, pigment
Classification
Dimensions
26 x 21 in. (66.0 x 53.3 cm) height of head and animal: 16 1/2 in. (41.9 cm) width of head: 9 in. (22.9 cm)
Credit Line
Gift of Dr. and Mrs. Abbott A. Lippman
Accession Number
85.143
Rights
Creative Commons-BY
You may download and use Brooklyn Museum images of this three-dimensional work in accordance with a Creative Commons license. Fair use, as understood under the United States Copyright Act, may also apply. Please include caption information from this page and credit the Brooklyn Museum. If you need a high resolution file, please fill out our online application form (charges apply). For further information about copyright, we recommend resources at the United States Library of Congress, Cornell University, Copyright and Cultural Institutions: Guidelines for U.S. Libraries, Archives, and Museums, and Copyright Watch. For more information about the Museum's rights project, including how rights types are assigned, please see our blog posts on copyright. If you have any information regarding this work and rights to it, please contact copyright@brooklynmuseum.org.
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