Napaskiak mask sets record

NEW YORK — The design for the ceremonial Eskimo mask comes from a shaman's dream. Fantastical, with a wide grin of pointed teeth and a halo of feathers, it is a highly expressive piece of Native American art — and had been tucked away in a private collection, unseen by the public for a half-century. Until now.

The mask, and another like it, once belonged to Surrealist painter Enrico Donati, and were sold for a combined $4.6 million at the Winter Antiques Show this month. Donald Ellis, owner of the gallery that offered them for sale, said it was a record price for Native American art.

The two masks, more than a century old, were among the most important items on display at the show, one of the country's premiere antiques events. Seventy-five dealers are at the annual bazaar, which runs through Jan. 30. Wealthy New Yorkers tend to be the main clientele, and museum curators peruse works both well-known and obscure.

The Donati masks were created by Yup'ik Eskimos in Alaska for use in winter ceremonies, based on ideas envisioned in dreams by their holy men.

"Donati thought, these are more surreal than the Surrealists," said Ellis.

The Eskimo masks "were functioning things, but these artists made them extraordinary, though they weren't seen as art until later," said Ellis, the dealer.

The masks were sold — likely for food — to a trader along the Kuskokwim River in Alaska at the turn of the 20th century. Donati bought them in 1945. They influenced his work so much that they will be part of an exhibit of works by Surrealists called "The Colour of My Dreams: Surrealism and Revolution in Art" at the Vancouver Art Gallery this spring.

(Note to readers. The Ellis Gallery catalog (11), which is much better informed and appropriately researched than this wire story, indicates the village of origin as Napaskiak. I've removed the "gods" reference, which I'm certain did not come from the gallery or any art authority, and corrected the spelling of Donati's first name. Mr. Ellis tells me the wooden parts chime musically. Any contemporary mask makers and dancers want to take a shot at duplicating it? The following information is republished here from the ADN ArtBeat column of Jan. 23. I hope it fills in some details. Mike Dunham, arts editor.)

This mask sings

A century-old South Wind dance mask from the Yukon-Kuskokwim region should be taking center stage in New York right about now. Reports say that it could become the most expensive piece of Native American art ever sold, with an asking price of $2.1 million.

The provenance of the exquisite mask is clear. It was purchased by Adam Hollis Twitchell of Bethel -- or, more probably, traded for guns, ammunition, grub or gear -- along with several other masks. It went to the National Museum of the American Indian.

When the museum hit hard times in the 1930s, they sold some of the masks but not all. There's a high probability that the South Wind mask is a cousin with the magnificent North Wind mask now on display in the Smithsonian section of the Anchorage Museum. They share a number of key design features and, as best I can tell from looking at pictures of one and squinting through the glass at the other, appear to have been made by the same artist.

NMAI didn't get much for its sacrifice, though others did. One of the five masks with which they parted is now among the crown jewels at the Louvre in Paris.

But the five masks brought only a few hundred dollars when pawned off in the 1940s. Modern artists, fascinated by the symbolism and exotic style, were among the first to line up to buy them. This one wound up with sculptor/painter Enrico Donati, and is now known as the Donati Studio Mask. Donati died in 2008 at the age of 99.

The mask, almost a yard tall, is a masterpiece, beautiful in concept and execution and, it seems, in near-new condition.

"I first saw this mask in 1988 and it inspired me to make Yup'ik masks a lifelong study and pursuit," said Donald Ellis of Donald Ellis gallery in Dundas, Ontario. He is currently in possession of the artwork. "The owner became a mentor and good friend. I consider it to be the most extraordinary work of art from the world I deal in that has been for sale since the 1940s."

In an article about the mask, the Wall Street Journal quoted another art dealer, John Molloy, who called it "a superb specimen."

"The influence of this mask and others collected by Twitchell on the group of Surrealists living in New York in the 1940s is immeasurable but undeniable," Molloy said. "It's a great piece and deserves to be the record-holder."

The mask is featured at the 57th Annual Winter Antiques Show in the Park Avenue Armory in New York.

The show, which runs through Jan. 30 this year, showcases galleries, exhibitors, appraisers and an astonishing range of stuff from the Roman Empire to mid-20th century Americana. It's a magnet for established collectors and people just getting into art acquisition.

When I first saw the photos of the Donati Studio piece, alerted by a posting on the Daily News Rural Blog website, I was particularly intrigued by the wooden slats suspended in front of the mask's eyes.

When used in a dance performance, they would have made a distinct and probably musical sound, a fourth audio element in Yup'ik music -- which generally presented as singing, drumming and dancing -- an element that remains lost as performers struggle to revive the art form. Museum experts who have unpacked similar masks have told me they "tinkle." But no one, so far as I know, has ever recorded that sound.

Asked what he could tell me, Ellis said, "I have been compelled to move it around a little and I can tell you that it does 'chime.' Quite beautifully."

In a link with today's main story, Adam Twitchell's descendent, Peter Twitchell, is included in the credits in folk singer Michael Faubion's press release for his new CD.

Read more: http://community.adn.com/node/155462#ixzz1C74sX0XR

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