Beau Dick was a master artist with a deep understanding of the power of Northwest Coast art. He was a prolific artist, teacher, mentor, storyteller, cultural performer, and a dedicated activist. He held the position of Artist in Residence for the faculty of Art History / Visual Art and Theory at UBC. This mask was created during the year of Expo ’86 in Vancouver when many artists were in high demand and many new collectors were discovering the modern art form.

This is a mask depicting Snuxus – The Sun and creator of all things instructing the four supernatural carpenters to carve and shape all aspects of the natural world, including humans and the objects that define humankind such as houses and canoes, and ceremonial pieces such as masks and rattles. The most renowned historical example of this mask type is held in the collection of the Museum of Natural History in New York and is featured on the cover of two important books on Northwest Coast art. Masks such as these were not worn but were handheld, raised above screens, or mounted with pulleys.

Gary Wyatt

Bella Coola Sun Mask, 1986 is an example of Beau Dick stepping outside his own Kwakwa̱ka̱ʼwakw artistic approach to engage with the Nuxalk (Bella Coola) art style. Dick pays homage to the Snuxus, the Nuxalk Nation's shared crest, which represents Alhkw’ntam (the Creator) in the centre from which the Four Carpenters radiate with their hands held up. For his interpretation, Dick pares down the Carpenter figures, representing them by four pairs of hands; each hand has four graceful fingers extended vertically like sunbeams, and an elegant curved-back thumb, that extend from ovoid palms. Beau Dick's fascination with hands was evident in this period. His print Circle of Hands from the same year closely mirrors the current mask, and it was also in 1986 that he designed the Hands of Friendship logo for Lattimer Gallery in Vancouver.

References: For a fine early Nuxalk example from which Dick likely drew his inspiration, see Peter Macnair, Robert Joseph and Bruce Grenville, Down from the Shimmering Sky – Masks of the Northwest Coast, (Vancouver: Douglas & McIntyre Publishers and the Vancouver Art Gallery, 1998), no. 60, reproduced on the cover, and p. 83 and in Aldona Jonaitis, From the Land of the Totem Poles – The Northwest Coast Indian Art Collection at the Museum of Natural History, (New York: American Museum of Natural History, 1988). Circle of Hands is reproduced in Darrin J. Martens, Beau Dick: Revolutionary Spirit, (Vancouver / Whistler: Figure.1 / Audain Art Museum, n.d. [2018]), cat. no. H, p. 139.