Bow Drill
CultureIñupiat, Alaska
Dateca. 1820
MediumWalrus ivory and native pigment
DimensionsOverall: 17 1/2 × 7/8 × 3/8 inches (44.45 × 2.22 × 0.95 cm)
Credit LinePurchase: Donald D. Jones Fund for American Indian Art
Object number2002.5.2
On View
On viewGallery Location
- 206
Collections
DescriptionSlender, curved ivory form of rectangular cross-section, covered with engraved, pigment-filled images of Eskimo life: villages, hunting scenes, ceremonies, spirit figures.Gallery LabelSmall-scale, engraved ivory objects have served for millennia as the principal means of pictorial expression among Iñupiat peoples. The bow drill was an essential tool in traditional culture, and this particular work is notable for both the quality of its drawing and the unusually wide range of subject matter. Indeed, the world of the Iñupiat is fully revealed in the minute, complex imagery and compositional progressions that cover its four-sided surface. Depictions of masks, spirit forms, shamanistic transformation and ceremonial dances are joined with those of migrating birds, hunting, fishing, village life and domestic scenes.
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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