During the long, harsh winters in the Arctic, local people traditionally gathered indoors for celebrations of performance cycles. These featured feasts and masked dances in order to maintain harmony between the human, animal, and supernatural realms for the coming year. The masks worn by costumed dancers were often danced in pairs and represented a variety of animals, supernatural beings, and animal helpers. Humorous examples were also known, including caricatures of local personalities meant to entertain the spectators.
Due to rights restrictions, this image cannot be enlarged, viewed at full screen, or downloaded.
Open Access
As part of the Met's Open Access policy, you can freely copy, modify and distribute this image, even for commercial purposes.
API
Public domain data for this object can also be accessed using the Met's Open Access API.
This artwork is meant to be viewed from right to left. Scroll left to view more.
Due to rights restrictions, this image cannot be enlarged, viewed at full screen, or downloaded.
Due to rights restrictions, this image cannot be enlarged, viewed at full screen, or downloaded.
Due to rights restrictions, this image cannot be enlarged, viewed at full screen, or downloaded.
Artwork Details
Use your arrow keys to navigate the tabs below, and your tab key to choose an item
Title:Dance Mask
Date:early 20th century
Geography:United States, Alaska
Culture:Yup'ik
Medium:Wood, paint, feathers
Dimensions:H. 24 x W. 23 3/4 x D. 6 1/2 in. (61 x 60.3 x 16.5 cm)
Classification:Wood-Costumes
Credit Line:The Michael C. Rockefeller Memorial Collection, Bequest of Nelson A. Rockefeller, 1979
Accession Number:1979.206.1120
Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation, New York, from 1927; Wolfgang von Paalen, acquired by 1939; Claude Levi Strauss, New York, acquired by ca. 1945 (?); [Ralph C. Altman, Los Angeles, acquired by 1952]; Nelson A. Rockefeller, New York, 1952, on loan to the Museum of Primitive Art, New York, 1963–1978
Museo Nacional de Antropología, Mexico City. "North American Indian Art," March 20, 1945–April 20, 1945.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Art of Oceania, Africa and the Americas from The Museum of Primitive Art," May 10–August 17, 1969.
National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C. "Native Art of the American Arctic and Northwest," March 7, 1973–May 15, 1973.
National Museum of the American Indian, New York, Smithsonian Institution. "Agayuliyararput (Our Way of Making Prayer): The Living Tradition of Yup'ik Masks," May 16, 1996–1998.
National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution. "Agayuliyararput (Our Way of Making Prayer): The Living Tradition of Yup'ik Masks," May 16, 1996–1998.
Anchorage Museum. "Agayuliyararput (Our Way of Making Prayer): The Living Tradition of Yup'ik Masks," May 16, 1996–October 26, 1996.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The Nelson Rockefeller Vision: In Pursuit of 'The Best' in the Arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas," October 7, 2013–October 9, 2014.
The Heard Museum. "Henri Matisse and the Arctic Spirit," October 27, 2018–February 4, 2019.
Metropolitan Museum of Art. Art of Oceania, Africa, and the Americas from the Museum of Primitive Art. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1969, no. 636.
Fienup-Riordan, Anne. "
." In The Living Tradition of Yup'ik Masks: Agayuliyararput: Our Way of Making Prayer. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1996, p. 20.
Fienup-Riordan, Anne, ed. Agayuliyararput:: kegginaqut, kangiit-llu = Our way of making prayer: Yup'ik masks and the stories they tell. Seattle: Anchorage Museum of History and Art, 1996, Introduction.
Wardwell, Allen. Tangible Visions: Northwest Coast Indian Shamanism and Its Art. New York: Monacelli Press, 1996.
The Met's Libraries and Research Centers provide unparalleled resources for research and welcome an international community of students and scholars.
The Met Collection API is where all makers, creators, researchers, and dreamers can connect to the most up-to-date data and public domain images for The Met collection. Open Access data and public domain images are available for unrestricted commercial and noncommercial use without permission or fee.
Feedback
We continue to research and examine historical and cultural context for objects in The Met collection. If you have comments or questions about this object record, please complete and submit this form. The Museum looks forward to receiving your comments.
The Met's collection of art of the peoples of sub-Saharan Africa, the Pacific Islands, and North, Central, and South America comprises more than eleven thousand works of art of varied materials and types, representing diverse cultural traditions from as early as 3000 B.C.E. to the present.
