Pair of Masks

Closely relating to a group of masks collected by French explorer Alphonse Pinart in 1872 in the Kodiak Archipelago. Now in the Château-Musée in Boulogne-sur-Mer, France, these masks appear to be the only matched pair extant.

Provenance

Donald Ellis Gallery, Dundas, ON
The Charles and Valerie Diker Collection, New York, NY

Exhibited

“Native Paths: American Indian Art from the Collection of Charles and Valerie Diker,” Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY; May 7, 1998–January 2, 2000
“First American Art: The Charles and Valerie Diker Collection of American Indian Art,” National Museum of the American Indian, New York, NY; April 24, 2003–May 29, 2006 
“Indigenous Beauty: Masterworks of American Indian Art from the Charles and Valerie Diker Collection,” Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, WA; February 12–May 17, 2015
“Indigenous Beauty: Masterworks of American Indian Art from the Charles and Valerie Diker Collection,” Amon Carter Museum of American Art, Fort Worth, TX; July 5–September 13, 2015

Published

Donald Ellis Gallery catalogue, 1998, pgs. 6-7
First American Art: The Charles and Valerie Diker Collection of American Indian Art, Bruce Bernstein and Gerald McMaster (eds.), Seattle, WA, University of Washington Press, 2004; pg. 109, cat. no. 57
Indigenous Beauty: Masterworks of American Indian Art from the Diker Collection, David Penney et al., New York, NY, Skira Rizzoli, 2015; pgs. 20 and 74

Related Examples

Desveaux, Emmanuel et al.  Kodiak, Alaska: Les masques de la collection Alphonse Pinart. Paris: Editions Adam Biro, 2002, pgs. 118 & 177

Collins, Henry B. De Laguna, Frederica. Carpenter, Edmund. Stone, Peter. The Far North: 2000 Years of Eskimo and Indian Art. Washington: National Gallery of Art, 197, pg. 44, pl. 54