Mask

CultureYup'ik, Southwest Alaska

Dateca. 1900

MediumWood, pigment, and feathers

DimensionsOverall: 15 × 15 × 9 1/4 inches (38.1 × 38.1 × 23.5 cm)

Credit LinePurchase: William Rockhill Nelson Trust

Object number31-125/61

On View

Not on view

Collections

North American Indian Art

Terms

DescriptionRepresenting a seal's head with bubbles.Gallery Label

Gallery Label

Yup'ik masks appeared, and are best understood, within the context of elaborate ceremonials and festivals that included dance, gesture, song and drumming. This mask depicts a seal, as seen by its facial features and the flippers attached at the sides of the head, but it also represents simultaneously the animal’s yua, or soul, and the souls of all seals. The face is vaguely human as well. In addition to representing the spirit of the animals depicted, many masks also expressed the ability of creatures and humans to change form, a common shamanistic theme. Masks were based on the visions of shamans, who either carved the mask themselves or directed the carving. The projecting, upward-turned rod with circular rings represents bubbles rising to the surface of the water.

Provenance

The Museum of the American Indian-Heye Foundation, New York, no. 120911, 1923-1931 [1];

Transferred from the Museum of the American Indian-Heye Foundation to The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 1931 [2].

NOTES:

[1] National Museum of the American Indian, Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC, object documentation, accession lot 1923.0313. The MAI’s source is not recorded. The Museum of the American Indian-Heye Foundation was founded in 1916 by George Heye (1874-1957) and opened to the public in New York City in 1922. In 1989, the remaining collection was transferred to the Smithsonian Institution and became part of the National Museum of the American Indian.

[2] In 1931, the Nelson-Atkins co-sponsored two archaeological expeditions with the Heye Foundation: one to Colombia that was directed by Gregory Mason, and a second to the Orinoco River region of Venezuela, directed by Herbert S. Dickey. The partage agreement between the two institutions specified that if the value of the found objects did not match the dollar amount invested by the Nelson-Atkins, the Heye Foundation would transfer objects from its own collection to the Nelson-Atkins to make up the difference, while also giving the Nelson-Atkins an opportunity to purchase additional objects from the Heye Foundation. When the archaeological excavations failed to meet expectations, this was one of a group of objects that were transferred/purchased from the Heye Foundation’s collection to the Nelson-Atkins.

Published References

Torrence, Gaylord, ed. Continuum: North American Native Art at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. Kansas City: Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art.

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