Editing African art (section)

==== Ivory Coast (Côte d'Ivoire) ====
{{Main|Culture of Ivory Coast}}
[[File:Child-soldier-afrika.jpg|thumb|upright|''[[military use of children|Childsoldier]] in the Ivory Coast'', [[Gilbert G. Groud]], 2007, mixed materials: tusche and wax crayon ]]
The [[Baoulé people|Baoulé]], the [[Senoufo]] and the [[Dan people|Dan]] peoples are skilled at carving wood and each culture produces wooden masks in wide variety. The Ivorian people use masks to represent animals in [[caricature]] to depict deities, or to represent the souls of the departed.

As the masks are held to be of great spiritual power, it is considered taboo for anyone other than specially trained persons or chosen ones to wear or possess certain masks. These ceremonial masks are each thought to have a soul, or life force, and wearing these masks is thought to transform the wearer into the entity the mask represents.

Ivory Coast (Côte d'Ivoire) also has modern painters and illustrators. [[Gilbert G. Groud]]<ref>[http://lambiek.net/artists/g/groud_gilbert.htm Gilbert G. Groud] Short Biography of Gilbert G. Groud. Retrieved 29 April 2022</ref> criticizes the ancient beliefs in [[black magic]], as held with the spiritual masks mentioned above, in his illustrated book ''[[Magie Noire]]''.