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Artworks
UNIDENTIFIED KWAKWA̱KA̱ʼWAKW ARTIST
Bear Forehead Mask with Articulated Jaw, c. 1880red cedar, hide, iron, and pigment, dimensions variable, 13.5 x 17.5 x 11.75 in (34.3 x 44.5 x 29.8 cm)
ears and lower jaw professionally restored by John Livingston (1951-2019), adopted Kwakwaka'wakw Master CarverLOT 24
ESTIMATE: $18,000 — $28,000Further images
Kwakwaka'wakw artists were adept at creating articulated masks of many different creatures both real and mythological. Here is a straightforward unadorned bear, its lower jaw attached by short pieces of...Kwakwaka'wakw artists were adept at creating articulated masks of many different creatures both real and mythological. Here is a straightforward unadorned bear, its lower jaw attached by short pieces of leather and tacks, acting as the hinges on which the mouth opens and shuts. The bear is carved out in every way that such a forehead mask was traditionally made. There once would have been a wood and leather harness to hold it on a dancer’s forehead pointing slightly upward. The ears and lower jaw are restorations that perfectly replicate what the original parts would have looked like, right down to the surface patina.
Holes pierced along the rear edge of the mask may have once been for attachment of a piece of cloth or hide designed to obscure the dancer. Without a known context in which this mask was used, it’s difficult to know precisely what its performance would have looked like. It may have been made for a solo performance of the great bear, Walas Na’n, the expression of a family crest, or perhaps part of a group dance with many other kinds of animals and spirits also represented.Steven C. Brown
References: For similarly styled bear masks see Audrey Hawthorn, Kwakiutl Art, (Vancouver: Douglas & McIntyre, 1988), pp. 197-198. See also Audrey Hawthorn, Art of the Kwakiutl Indians and Other Northwest Coast Tribes, (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1967), pp. 257-259.
Provenance
A Vancouver Collection.
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