A large carved granite figure of a female deity, South India, Vijayanagara period, 14th century

Collection of Jack Masey (1924-2016).

Jack Masey (1924-2016) was a modern-day polymath with interest across history and culture. He enjoyed success in multiple fields of activity, but especially in two key periods of his career: in his involvement in the Ghost Army during the Second World War, and as an organizer of international exhibitions for the US State Department. The collection of Indian stone carvings he formed while resident in New Delhi in the 1950s pays testament to his connoisseurship and eye as an art collector.

The name ‘Ghost Army’ is used to describe the 23rd Headquarters Special Troops and the 3133rd Signal Service Company during WWII. The members used inflatable equipment, sound effects, radio trickery and other combat deception strategies to trick the Nazis and move enemy forces away from American Units. The last surviving veterans were awarded the Congressional Gold Medal for their achievements, which resulted in tens of thousands of American lives being saved. Jack, one of the earliest graduates of the High School of Music and Art in New York City, was selected for assignment to the “Ghost Army” for his artistic skills alongside Bill Blass and Ellsworth Kelly.

After studying at the Yale School of Art and Architecture, Masey was recruited by the US State Department to organize exhibitions on behalf of the United States around the world. As the design chief for the 1959 American National Exhibition in Moscow, he worked with George Nelson, Charles and Ray Eames and Richard Buckminster Fuller, and included fashion shows and art by the likes of Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning. Here also, a selection of US household appliances in a model home sparked the famous “Khrushchev-Nixon kitchen debate”, which became one of the landmark moments of the Cold War. 

During his first assignment in New Delhi in the 1950s on the peaceful use of atomic energy, he had frequent contact with Jawaharlal Nehru, befriended filmmaker Satyajit Ray, became close to Ravi Shankar, and embraced the culture of India. From 1953-54 he made groundbreaking recordings of the music of Ravi Shankar and other leading musicians including Ali Akbar Khan and Chatur Lal. These original tapes remain with his widow and are available for study.

The twelve lots (lots 150-161) offered in this sale were all collected by Jack Masey while based in New Delhi in the 1950s. They provide a snapshot into the evolution of sculpture in India, from the early Buddhist images created at Gandhara and Mathura to the elegant bronze figure of Parvati from the Vijayanagara period.