Additional Images

Provenance:

John Spangler Collection;
Seahawk Auctions, Burnaby, BC, 22 June 2014, lot 101;
Private Collection, Ontario

Note:

Henry Hunt is recognized as a key figure in the preservation and revival of Kwakwaka’wakw artistic traditions in the first half of the 20th century. A descendant of the important Tlingit-Kwakwaka’wakw interpreter, ethnologist, and field collector George Hunt, Henry came from a family that continues to influence public understanding of Pacific Northwest Coast art in Canada and abroad.

In 1939 Henry Hunt married Helen Martin, the adopted daughter of the Kwakwaka'wakw master carver Mungo Martin. Henry Hunt’s children would become well-known artists Henry Jr., Shirley Ford, Tony Hunt, Richard Hunt, and Stanley C. Hunt.

While Henry Hunt studied under influential artists Arthur Shaughnessy and Mungo Martin, he would ultimately develop his own influential style. Upon the latter’s death in 1962, Hunt succeeded Martin as the master carver at Thunderbird Park in Victoria, BC.

Hunt’s early carvings with their clearly defined line and bold volumes are sometimes mistakenly attributed to Martin. The present mask, carved at the time that Hunt succeeded Martin at Thunderbird Park, is closely related to an “Echo Mask” held in the collection of the Smithsonian Museum of the American Indian, cat. No. 25/3871, dated circa 1960.

References:
Ira Jacknis, The Storage Box of Tradition : Kwakiutl Art, Anthropologists, and Museums, 1881-1981, (Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press, 2002)
Jennifer Kramer, K̓esư : The Art and Life of Doug Cranmer, (Vancouver: Douglas & McIntyre, 2012)

Related Works:

Henry Hunt, sap̓agamł (Echo Mask)
Henry Hunt, Raven Echo Mask