Carnival, Oruro, Bolivia

9 inches (wide), painted tin

The devil mask captures the essence of the Oruro Carnival. The devil or Supay represents the Andean pre-conquest underworld figure that was lord of the hills and transmogrified by the Christians as the Devil. Masks like this are worn with equally ornate costumes in the big parade.

From the Vicent Price Collection
Old masks like this one are not only historical, they are of better quality. The time-honored craft of folk art is dying out and being replace by hastily made reproductions for tourists and the export business. This piece is beautifully crafted, even though it shows all the signs of age. The mask may have been purchased at Sonrisa, an LA gallery that sold Mexican and Latin American folk art during the 1980s and 1990s. It would have been an older piece at that time. What we know for sure is that it hung in Vincent Price’s home...an example of his whimsical taste in folk art!