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Hi, Just wondering if anyone knows of any artists who use masks in their paintings? I'm doing a portrait of somebody wearing a mask as in an ornate 'show' mask and I have to look at other artists...i've looked at African masks but does anyone know any induvidual artists who have used masks? Thankyou so much!

Judy Decker

Dear Art Conversation Members,

The artist who first came to my mind is James Ensor.
http://www.artcyclopedia.com/artists/ensor_james.html

Many of his images with masks can be found on line (enter Ensor Masks in Google images for starters).

Matisse did some paintings with masks as still life....

Plus there is Picasso's cubist painting with mask like face (inspired by African masks).

Hope this helps,

Judy Decker

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a great artist type it in to gooogle
first link
so amazing

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Picasso or Brancusi

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XD even though I didn't ask the question, I found Alex Levin a big help for my portfolio with Art! thank you ;3

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Artist Pietro Longhi
Title English: Masked Party in a Courtyard
Year 1755(1755) Venice
Technique Oil on canvas
Parallel to the mask, Venetian society is not what it seems. In this work, Longhi successfully portrays duality in depicting the ordinary occurrence , but he also adds the subtle hints using masked individuals to portray mystery and the unrevealed personality.

Eakins, Thomas (Thomas Cowperthwaite Eakins)(American 1844-1916) Naturalist Realist Painter, sculptor, photographer & teacher
Figure Study of Masked Nude Woman the masterpiece of this famous artist: Nude woman, seated, wearing a mask
Charcoal on paper circa 1863–1866


Louis-Emile Durandelle Art Photography
"Masked Figures from the Paris Opera House", 1875; ...


James Ensor (Belgian, 1860-1949)
Masks Confronting Death/Death Masks
Paintings such as The Scandalized Masks (1883) and Skeletons Fighting over a Hanged Man (1891) feature figures in grotesque masks inspired by the ones sold in his mother's gift shop for Ostend's annual Carnival. Subjects such as carnivals, masks, puppetry, skeletons, and fantastic allegories are dominant in Ensor's mature work.


"Demoiselles d’Avignon"
(Two of which are shown with African mask-like faces)
Artist Pablo Picasso
Year 1907
Type Oil on canvas


Contemporary-

Zeng Fanzhi (Chinese Artist, 1964)
From 1994 and until 2001, Zeng Fanzhi worked through his well-known Mask series. Each figure portrayed in this series wears a white mask fitting smoothly over the face. These figures armor themselves for their excursions into society not only by putting on a false face, but also by donning clothing proclaiming a secure status. That status might be the formerly politically elevated station of a Red Guard, or the current economically enviable position of a young urbanite garbed in the latest fashions. The paintings themselves put on a smooth front in keeping with their theme: in every square inch of the background, the canvas is covered evenly with paint, smoothly applied - often using a palette knife to achieve a smooth surface.

Gary Willis painter La COMMEDIA Del ARTE
'..like a masked traveller drifting through time..', in 1995 Willis took up the theme of the fool; le cirque, la carnivale, les saltimbanques, la commedia dell’arte -in a self-conscious appropriation of a subject and a fitting mask to his current philosophic considerations. (..Send in the clowns...)