Dogon Masks

Polly gained a PhD in art history from SOAS, University of London in 2003, having researched Masks and Masquerades of the Dogon people in Mali, West Africa.

Her fieldwork in the Dogon region was funded in part by the Horniman Museum, London, who commissioned her simultaneously to acquire the UK’s first collection of contemporary Dogon art. Polly has written and lectured extensively on the subject of Dogon masks and modernity and regularly advises on Dogon artefacts, collections and exhibitions.

Polly directed two films for the Museum for African Art (now the Africa Centre) in New York and National Museum of Mali in Bamako (© Museum for African Art, 2013).

Polly thesis can be downloaded here.

Mask Stories (© Museum for African Art, 2013).

Masks and Modernité: Dogon Now, A Conversation with Polly Richards and Isaïe Dougnon, (© The Menil Collection).