Mask (late 1800s–early 1900s): Art, History and Details

Mask (late 1800s–early 1900s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

In 1998, Robert Joseph, a Northwest Coast chief, recalled that when he donned ceremonial dance masks as a youth, "all the world is somewhere else . . . I am the mask . . . the bird . . . the animal . . . the spirit. I transcend into the being of the mask." Although this mask's identity is lost, it may represent a mythic ancestor of a Tlingit family and perhaps was worn during a winter ceremony.

Object facts

• Title: Mask
• Date: late 1800s–early 1900s
• Culture: Native North America, Northwest Coast, Alaska, Tlingit
• Type: Sculpture
• Technique: wood (alder), pigment
• Dimensions: Overall: 21.4 x 17.2 x 8.9 cm (8 7/16 x 6 3/4 x 3 1/2 in.)
• Collection: AA - Native North America
• Department: Art of the Americas
• Accession number: 1979.83

Collection credit

Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Lee, Sherman E. "The Year in Review for 1979." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 67, no. 3 (1980): 58-99.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.