Kwakiutl Polychromed Wood Transformation Mask

representing a bear, worn as a forehead mask, with sharply tapering snout, pointed oval eye frames, short rounded ears and a panel of bear fur on the crown, the articulated lower jar opening to reveal a human face, wearing a trance-like expression, numerous cords attached to the upper and lower sections for manipulation; the interior and exterior facial surface painted in black, white, blue, green and vermillion red with classic totemic representations.

Denver Art Museum
Eugene Chesrow Collection, Chicago IL
Private Collection, New York
Acquired by the present owner from the above

Aspen Art Museum, "Art of the Ancestors", 2004
Sotheby's Paris, June 6-10, 2008

George Shaw, Art of the Ancestors, University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque, 2000, p. 60, color illustration.

For a discussion of Kwakiutl transformation masks see Hawthorn, 1967, p. 238: “Two types of masks involving multiple identity were developed by the Northwest Coast Indians…Even more dramatic were the transformation masks, an amazing combination of an imaginative conception with technical ingenuity. These masks, which reached their highest development among the Kwakiutl, carried out the very essence of Kwakiutl mythology by revealing the dual nature of a mythological creature…Carefully carved and balanced on hinges, the mask was intricately strung. At the climatic moment of the dance, the music, and the beat of the batons all changed tempo, speeding up just before the transformation and then halting while it occurred. When certain strings were pulled by the dancer, the external shell of the mask split, usually into four sections, sometimes into two. These pieces of the external covering continued to separate until the inner character was revealed, suspended in the center."