An ancient and beautiful okuyi mask known throughout the southern Gabon region. Okuyi masks, characterized by their white kaolin coating, red lips, upward-arched eyebrows and closed eyes, are one of the fundamental elements of the main initiation ceremonies for men throughout the cultural area of southern Gabon (Punu-Lumbu, Shira, Nzebi). They are worn during the Mukudj' dance (also known as Mukuyi or Okuyi). During this ceremony, the mask wearer, perched on stilts, performs a dance from morning until late afternoon. Usually performed at the initiation of young boys, these dances also accompanied other important community events. The mask's elegant features and whiteness evoke the beneficial powers of the "female ancestor" or the "young dead woman". The use of a female figure of authority is also related to the importance of matrilineal clans in the region. In equatorial Africa, while the symbolism of the mask's white color refers to the spirit world, the color of the lips and scarification marks in padouk red is a reference to life. Indeed, the liturgical function of the mask was to link the world of the living to the world of the dead. As Louis Perrois has pointed out, it was also a reference to ancestral endogeneity, manifested by the alternation and combination of symbols, between the scarification marks on the temples, a distinctive sign of masculinity, and the feminine diadem adorning the forehead. An essential emblem of African art since the late 19th century, the Punu mask corpus was one of the first to be celebrated by modernists. The precious, fine, geometric lines of these masks fascinated from the earliest days of the discovery of African art, and had a notable impact on modern painters, first and foremost Picasso. This mask from the former Sam Wagstaff collection fits admirably into the okuyi corpus and illustrates, as do well-known examples (Coll. privée, exhibited and published in Les Forêtes natales, Quai Branly: no. 314, p. 345 or, among others, the one sold at Sotheby's, Paris , December 10, 2014, no. 94) the idealized beauty of the female face. The purity of its lines and the naturalism of its features are a striking tribute to Punu aesthetics. Punu, Gabon Wood, kaolin, black and red pigments, old wear, patina. H. 31 cm Provenance : - Sam Wagstaff Collection, New York, ca. 1970 - Merton Simpson, New York - Nadine Vinot-Postry, Paris - Johann Levy, Paris - Private collection, Paris