Dance object

Yup'ik, Native American

On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 746

This object hung from the roof of a ceremonial house, and it honored the animals taken in the hunt. A male figure wears a traditional Yup‘ik bentwood hunting hat and pilots a magical kayak disguised as a walrus—the head, tail, and flippers of the creature are visible. The Museum of Modern Art, New York, featured this assemblage at the entrance to its famous 1941 exhibition, “Indian Art of the United States.”

Dance object, Wood, pigment, vegetal fiber, and feathers, Yup'ik, Native American

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Dance object, Wood, pigment, vegetal fiber, and feathers, Yup'ik, Native American
Dance object, Wood, pigment, vegetal fiber, and feathers, Yup'ik, Native American
Dance object, Wood, pigment, vegetal fiber, and feathers, Yup'ik, Native American

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