Ho'koma (human face mask)
Dateca. 1890
Label TextThis humanoid face is typical of Nuu-chah-nulth masks in its prismatic form, the wide under-brow plane and eyes placed flat on the cheek level. Asymmetrical painting with different designs on each side suggests a being with changing identity. Like many masks and headdresses, this is one of a pair that would have been performed together.
Object number91.1.23
ProvenanceMicheal R. Johnson, Seattle, Washington, until 1971; John H. Hauberg, Seattle, Washington, 1971-1991; Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, Washington
Photo CreditPhoto: Paul Macapia
Exhibition HistorySeattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, Seattle Collects Northwest Coast Native Art, February 12, - May 17, 2015
Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, Native Visions: Northwest Coast Art, 18th Century to the Present, October 1, 1998 - January 31, 1999
London, England, Kansas City, Missouri, Sacred Circles: Two Thousand Years of North American Indian Art, 1976-77
Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, The Box of Daylight, September 15, 1983 - January 8, 1984Published ReferencesBrown, Steven C., Native Visions: Evolution in Northwest Coast Art from the Eighteenth Through the Twentieth Century, Seattle Art Museum, 1998, pg. 136
The Spirit Within: Northwest Coast Native Art from the John H. Hauberg Collection, Seattle Art Museum, 1995, pg. 26.
Holm, Bill, Box of Daylight: Northwest Coast Indian Art, Seattle Art Museum, University of Washington Press, 1983, no. 30, p. 34, illus.
Coe, Ralph T., Sacred Circles: Two Thousand Years of North American Indian Art, Arts Council of Great Britain, 1977, no. 270, p. 137, illus.
Credit LineGift of John H. Hauberg
Dimensions12 x 8 1/2 x 7 3/4 in. (30.48 x 21.59 x 19.69 cm)
MediumRed cedar, cedar bark, paint
First Nations, Nuu-chah-nulth, Hesquiat
ca. 1900
Object number: 91.1.70
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