Long, rectangular, brown mask. The sack-like mask is made of tree bark stitched along either side. The top of the mask folds over behind the head and has a dark brown fringe made of bark strips which cascades down the back like hair. Two eyeholes are made at the bottom of the mask, below the face. The face of the mask is a large oval made of dried black resin, painted with white and yellow features and geometric patterns. The mouth is a triangle, the cheeks and forehead have semi-circles and there are horizontal lines on the eyebrows. The face has protruding triangular nose and eyebrows made of balsa wood.

By exchange

Gift of the Ernest Erickson Foundation, Inc.

Round, polychrome bowl with three distinct sections. The upper section has a cream slip and dark brown rectilinear design, with both thin and thick lines. A “U” shaped ridge frames a face on each side of the bowl; with protruding noses, painted eyes, mouths, and tattoo-like rectilinear designs. One face has some loss above one eye on the bowl rim. The top and bottom borders of this section have dark brown wave-like lines around the circumference. The upper section tapers outwards towards the mid section. The mid section has an orange-brown slip with a rectilinear design made up of thin dark brown lines and thicker cream lines. The lower section is an undecorated beige colour, which constricts sharply from the broad mid section to a 6 cm flat base. The interior surface of the bowl has a red-brown slip.

Native American artists Marcellus and Elizabeth Toya Medina and Kevin Pourier create works inspired by both old and new art forms. The painted designs on the water jar of classic Pueblo shape combine traditional masked Kachinas in static poses with naturalistic, muscled, male Pueblo dancers who seem to burst off the vessel’s surface. The inlaid buffalo-horn spoon, a traditional Plains implement, is given a contemporary twist in Pourier’s homage to M. C. Escher’s hypnotic prints.

Gift of Dr. Werner Muensterberger

Standing, Remojadas-style, male figure, probably representing a warrior, with hands clasping what looks like a cup in front of his body. The figure's upper arms are adorned with spheres of clay that may represent scarification or another type of body adornment. He wears an elaborate headdress with chinstrap, hollow ear spools, a nose bar, wide necklace, arm bands, loincloth, and sandals. His face and body are covered with black pigment, which is a complex mixture of plant saps, resins, crushed plants, asphalt, and black soot (carbon), frequently used by Veracruz artists to embellish their sculptures. Condition: good.

Carll H. de Silver Fund

These ivory figurines may be high-status versions of the miniature clay examples that have been found in burial contexts throughout the Andean region of South America. The small and delicate male and female carvings are decorated with stone and shell inlays that suggest that they possibly functioned as treasured talismans or ritual offerings.


Estas figurillas de marfil pueden tratarse de versiones de alto rango de los ejemplos de miniaturas de barro que se han encontrado en contextos funerarios a través de la región Andina de Sudamérica. Los pequeños y delicados tallados masculino y femenino están decorados con incrustaciones de piedra y concha, sugiriendo que tuvieron una función como amuletos atesorados o como ofrendas rituales.