Tunumiit / Ammassalik culture mask - Inuit - Greenland (No reserve price)

This piece belongs to the distinct tradition of "Ammassalik Entertainment / Theater Masks" used in traditional winter games and the ancient Uaajeerneq mask dance.

The wooden attachments pegged to the cheeks are actual representations of mouth distenders. Historically, actors and dancers would place short pieces of wood, bone, or tooth horizontally between their lips or wedge a bone/wood peg behind their cheek skin to intentionally distort their jaws, balloon their cheeks, and produce a grotesque, wide smile to amuse or frighten the audience.

Due to the Arctic environment, Inuit artists had no access to timber or stone tools; instead, they worked with limited natural materials such as roots, driftwood, shrubs, bone, teeth, ivory, and other organic elements from animals like seals, walrus, bears, whales, and wolves. The beautiful wood grain suggests the use of a root or driftwood, skillfully shaped despite material constraints.

Culture: Inuit
Origin: Greenland
Period: mid 20th century or earlier
Material: Wood (root/driftwood)
Condition: Good overall, with age-related wear consistent with ritual use.
Mount: Metal stand included
A rare, ancient, and highly evocative piece of Inuit ethnographic art.
Provenance: Tribal art Galerie Paris, Dutch private collection.

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