Fowler Traces "Shifting Meanings" in African Art

Bamileke mask, late 19th century. Fowler Museum at UCLA, gift of the Wellcome Trust

The Fowler Museum will feature one of its most admired African objects in a small exhibition opening this November. "Belonging: Changing Hands and Shifting Meanings in African Arts" will explore the stories of how several works made their ways from Africa to Los Angeles. Shown here is a carved wood mask of the Bamileke people, Cameroon. Such masks were made by the Msop men's association and were danced at funerals and other ceremonies. 

Pharmaceutical tycoon Henry Wellcome purchased the mask from a French missionary. Wellcome's collection was offered to the British Museum, which chose a few pieces from a rudimentary catalog and overlooked the Bamileke mask. It was later donated to UCLA's new world art museum in 1965. In its Los Angeles home, the mask acquired the nickname "Mickey" after the Disney trademark. It is now one of the most lent works in the Fowler collection, traveling in a specially designed box.

"Belonging" opens Nov. 16, 2025, and runs through Summer 2026.