Sculpture from the Collection of George Terasaki

Sculpture from the Collection of George Terasaki

View full screen - View 1 of Lot 9. HOPI FIGURE.

HOPI FIGURE

Auction Closed

November 19, 09:20 PM GMT

Estimate

3,000 - 5,000 USD

Lot Details

Description

HOPI FIGURE


Depicting Koyemsi

Circa 1910

Height: 13 ¼ in (33.5 cm)

Cottonwood, pigments, fiber

George Terasaki, New York, acquired in the 1970s

Alexandra Pascassio and George Terasaki, Kachina: George Terasaki Collection, Paris, 2008, n.p., cat. no. 47

Like the Koshare, the Koyesmi is not a kachina, but rather a clown figure, commonly called Mud Head and shared by both the Hopi and Zuni peoples. Koyesmi "is an interlocutor between kachinas and men. It behaves as a simpleton one moment, a wise man the next." (Wright in Portago and Wright, Classic Hopi and Zuni Kachina Figures, Santa Fe, 2006, p. 142).