During the long, harsh winters in the Arctic, local people traditionally gathered indoors for celebrations of performance cycles. These featured feasts and masked dances in order to maintain harmony between the human, animal, and supernatural realms for the coming year. The masks worn by costumed dancers were often danced in pairs and represented a variety of animals, supernatural beings, and animal helpers. Humorous examples were also known, including caricatures of local personalities meant to entertain the spectators.
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Artwork Details
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Title:Dance Mask
Date:early 20th century
Geography:United States, Alaska
Culture:Yup'ik
Medium:Wood, paint, feathers
Dimensions:H. 24 x W. 23 3/4 x D. 6 1/2 in. (61 x 60.3 x 16.5 cm)
Classification:Wood-Costumes
Credit Line:The Michael C. Rockefeller Memorial Collection, Bequest of Nelson A. Rockefeller, 1979
Object Number:1979.206.1120
Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation, New York, from 1927; Wolfgang von Paalen, acquired by 1939; Claude Levi Strauss, New York, acquired by ca. 1945 (?); [Ralph C. Altman, Los Angeles, acquired by 1952]; Nelson A. Rockefeller, New York, 1952, on loan to the Museum of Primitive Art, New York, 1963–1978
Museo Nacional de Antropología, Mexico City. "North American Indian Art," March 20, 1945–April 20, 1945.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Art of Oceania, Africa and the Americas from The Museum of Primitive Art," May 10–August 17, 1969.
National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C. "Native Art of the American Arctic and Northwest," March 7, 1973–May 15, 1973.
Anchorage Museum. "Agayuliyararput (Our Way of Making Prayer): The Living Tradition of Yup'ik Masks," May 16, 1996–October 26, 1996.
National Museum of the American Indian, New York, Smithsonian Institution. "Agayuliyararput (Our Way of Making Prayer): The Living Tradition of Yup'ik Masks," May 16, 1996–1998.
National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution. "Agayuliyararput (Our Way of Making Prayer): The Living Tradition of Yup'ik Masks," May 16, 1996–1998.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The Nelson Rockefeller Vision: In Pursuit of 'The Best' in the Arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas," October 7, 2013–October 9, 2014.
The Heard Museum. "Henri Matisse and the Arctic Spirit," October 27, 2018–February 4, 2019.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Art of Oceania, Africa, and the Americas from the Museum of Primitive Art. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1969, no. 636.
Fienup-Riordan, Anne. "
." In The Living Tradition of Yup'ik Masks: Agayuliyararput: Our Way of Making Prayer. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1996, p. 20.
Fienup-Riordan, Anne, ed. Agayuliyararput:: kegginaqut, kangiit-llu = Our way of making prayer: Yup'ik masks and the stories they tell. Seattle: Anchorage Museum of History and Art, 1996, Introduction.
Wardwell, Allen. Tangible Visions: Northwest Coast Indian Shamanism and Its Art. New York: Monacelli Press, 1996.
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