Baule Mask
Date: 1935 ; New York City ; New York , United States in terms of modern geography
Art Form: Painting
Dimensions: 18 X 12 cm (7.09 X 4.72 in)
In 1935, Lewis attended the exhibition African Negro Art at the Museum of Modern Art. Deeply inspired by the forms he encountered, he executed colorful pastel drawings—some on sandpaper—of masks from the Baulé and Dan cultures. A typed statement in Lewis’s archive reveals his clear understanding of the severe distinctions between African sculpture and the Greco-Roman model of naturalism that had previously informed his work and teaching.
