EVER SINCE I FIRST saw the famous five-and-dime scene in “Breakfast at Tiffany’s,” in which Audrey Hepburn and George Peppard mischievously shoplift plastic cat and dog disguises by wearing them out of the store, I have had a soft spot for animal masks. Though I’ve worn them to costume parties, I’d never thought to decorate with them until a recent trip to the Barbican Centre in London, where a new exhibition, “Magnificent Obsessions: The Artist as Collector,” details the kooky personal collections of creative types such as Andy Warhol (who hoarded cookie jars) and Damien Hirst (who has a thing for skulls).  For me, the show’s standout was the masks amassed by artist Peter Blake, most famous for designing the album cover for the Beatles’ “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.” A photo in the show’s catalog illustrates how he has hung more than 30 exotic false faces—papier-mâché sheep, giraffe and bird visages mixed with wooden tribal heads from Africa, Japan, Indonesia and China—in a tight cluster in his London studio. Their effect is at once peregrine and pop, more dimensional than framed fine art and vivid in a way taxidermy could never equal.  Mr. Blake has installed his animal masks—collected from joke shops around London—along a small, irregular wall beneath a staircase. “He has a very democratic view of objects and finds value in anything, not just those of high value,” said assistant curator Luke Naessens. A similarly whimsical arrangement of masks would work well mounted above any anchoring element in a room—say, a mantle or a couch.  If you’re interested in parroting Mr. Blake’s idea, you can find inexpensive colorful critters from Danish design company Hay or London artist Abigail Brown who, inspired by traditional Native American spirit-animal mythology, creates papier-mâché heads of quirky creatures like a striped possum and a spectacled bear that hang equally tamely on walls.  In her own home, Ms. Brown, much like Mr. Blake, mixes her beastly designs with tribal masks from India and Mexico, all hung above an antique cabinet in a narrow hallway. The contrast between the tribal masks and animal ones, she said, allows you to “view the differences and make comparisons across the different cultures.”  Indeed, mixing different designers and cultures is key to creating a powerful tableau, but if you’re not venturing to a far-flung locale (or a flea market) soon, you can also order lively animal masks from Mexico and Africa on the import site Indigo Arts. And if you prefer to start small, a single mask emphatically placed above a door frame or tucked inside a guest bathroom can feel as wonderful and wild as a whole pack.
Artist Peter Blake’s ferociously charming collection of masks inspires Alexa Brazilian to go hunting for a zoological décor statement.