Mask

Not worn by a person, masks of this type were created using tools of bone, horn, and stone. There are no eyeholes, and the flat back of the mask, in addition to its weight suggest that it was instead attached to something else. Probably utilized in a funerary context, this mask may have been placed over the face of the dead. Some scholars believe they may have been attached to wooden figures or armatures in order to resemble more costly figures made entirely of stone. Experts suspect these masks were originally more individualized than they currently appear. Inlayed eyes, shells, and painting would have been added.

1979, Indiana University Art Museum purchase from Raymond Wielgus, Chicago, IL

1966, Raymond Wielgus acquires from John Stokes, New York, NY [1]

Unidentified date, John Stokes acquires, New York, NY [2]

Unidentified dates, unidentified owner(s), possibly in Mexico and/or other places [3]

Notes
[1] This purchase is documented in Raymond Wielgus’s records through an undated written note. Wielgus numbered artworks in his collection, with the first two numbers indicating the year he acquired the work; this object is RW66.277 (Wielgus records, Eskenazi Museum curatorial file).

[2] We do not yet know when or how Stokes acquired this work, as Wielgus did not include any further provenance documentation in his records.

[3] We do not yet know how many changes in ownership transpired between when this artwork was initially made and owned to when John Stokes acquired it. This absence of documentation on ownership history within the cultures where the artworks were made and used is part of a larger history of collecting practices that did not record prior ownership among communities of origin.

Provenance research is ongoing for this and many other items in the Eskenazi Museum of Art permanent collection. For more information about the provenance of this artwork, please contact the department curator with specific questions.

April 15–June 18, 2000, "Affinities of Form: Arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas from the Raymond and Laura Wielgus Collection," Tucson Museum of Art, Tucson, AZ

April 13, 1996–February 8, 1998, "Affinities of Form: Arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas from the Raymond and Laura Wielgus Collection," Portland Museum of Art, Portland, ME, April 13–June 9, 1996; Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, TX, July 14–October 13, 1996; Tampa Museum of Art, Tampa, FL, November 8, 1996–January 5, 1997; Georgia Museum of Art, Athens, GA, January 17–March 16, 1997; Equitable Gallery, New York, NY, April 4–June 1, 1997; Norton Museum of Art, West Palm Beach, FL, September 19–November 16, 1997; Joslyn Art Museum, Omaha, NE, December 12, 1997–February 8, 1998

October 1, 1993–February 27, 1994, "Affinities of Form: The Raymond and Laura Wielgus Collection of the Arts of Africa, Oceania and the Americas," Indiana University Art Museum, Bloomington, IN

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Cite this page
"Mask | Collections Online." Collections Online. Sidney and Lois Eskenazi Museum of Art, Indiana University, 2025. https://artmuseum.indiana.edu/collections-online/browse/object.php?number=79.6.2