Inventory # CE4297
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Moon Dancers: Yup’ik Masks and the Surrealists
In collaboration with Di Donna Galleries
April 26 – June 28, 2018
Di Donna Galleries, New York
Surrealist artists and writers were fascinated and inspired by Yup’ik dance masks from the central Alaskan coast, which they avidly collected during their period of exile in New York City during World War II. This spring, Di Donna Galleries and Donald Ellis Gallery will jointly present Moon Dancers: Yup’ik Masks and the Surrealists, an exhibition exploring the rich historical, visual, and ideological connections between Yup’ik masks and Surrealism. A full colour publication with scholarly essays and ample archival material will accompany the exhibition. The exhibition is organized by Di Donna Galleries in collaboration with Donald Ellis Gallery, and with major loans from the Calder Foundation, the Charles and Valerie Diker Collection, Lucid Art Foundation, The Pierre and Tana Matisse Foundation and important private collections.
Many of the Yup’ik masks in the exhibition were previously owned by Surrealists André Breton, Enrico Donati, Robert Lebel, Matta, Kay Sage, and Isabelle Waldberg. Alongside their work, the exhibition will showcase artists including Max Ernst, Joan Miró, Victor Brauner, Yves Tanguy, André Masson, Wolfgang Paalen, Kurt Seligmann and Leonora Carrington to celebrate the fertile creative intersection between 19th and early 20th century Yup’ik masks from the central Alaskan coast, and the Surrealists’ indefatigable quest for spiritual and artistic connections with pre-modern societies all over the world.
For more information visit Di Donna Galleries
Highlights of the Exhibition
Inventory # CE3462b
Inventory # E4200
Inventory # CE4298
Featured in the Press
Watching the Surrealists at Work
An article in Art in America foregrounds how the works on show at Moon Dancers: Yup’ik Masks and the Surrealists might have actively influenced Surrealist thought and practice
The Surrealists’ Dance with Yup’ik Masks
Gini Alhadeff of the New York Review of Books discusses the exhibition Moon Dancers: Yup’ik Masks and the Surrealists, organized jointly by Di Donna Galleries and Donald Ellis Gallery
Yup’ik Masks Transform into Surrealist Art
Mary Ann Caws of the Brooklyn Rail argues that Moon Dancers: Yup’ik Masks and The Surrealists elucidates ‘the transformations from the mask to the sculptures, drawings, and paintings’
How Native Alaskan Culture Influenced Surrealist Masters
Margaret Carrigan of Galerie Magazine writes that Moon Dancers: Yup’ik Masks and the Surrealists sheds light on 'a long-overlooked cultural exchange’
The Remarkable Creative Intersection Between Yup’ik Masks and Surrealism
State of the Arts NYC writes that Moon Dancers: Yupik Masks and the Surrealists celebrates the ‘remarkable connections between Surrealism and Yup’ik masks’