BEN "BLACKIE" DICK SR., KWAKWA?KA?'WAKW
Atlakim Sun Mask, c. 1960s
carved cedar and acrylic paint, 14 x 6.5 x 11.75 in (35.6 x 16.5 x 29.8 cm)
titled, "SUN MASK";
signed and inscribed, "CARVED / BY / BEN DICK / KINGCOME / B.C."

Provenance
Seahawk Auctions, Burnaby, BC, 21 November 2010, Lot 70;
Acquired from the above by the present Important Private Collection, Pittsburgh, PA.

Benjamin “Blackie” Dick was an accomplished Kwakwaka’wakw carver and painter from a family of artists. His father was James Dick, carver of the Centennial Park Pole in Victoria, and his son was renowned master carver Beau Dick. Blackie’s work can be found in the collections of the University of Washington Burke Museum, the Royal British Columbia Museum, and the Museum of Anthropology at UBC (MOA). The MOA has quite a few examples of his earlier painting from the 1960s and 1970s, which show a heavy influence in his work from Chief Henry Speck (1908-1971). This is particularly evident in the complex density of Dick’s designs and the tension he achieves by sharply tapering design elements, pinching the corners of the tertiary space around eyes, and utilizing repeating patterns of rapidly constricting and swelling lines (as on the eyebrows of this mask).

The sun, which this mask depicts, was a favourite motif that Dick often returned to in his art. Rendered in red cedar, this sun mask features a central face that is surrounded by a ring of complex u-forms representing the sun’s corona and light rays. The mask has a white undercoat of paint with brown, red, green, and black accents. As on Dick’s two-dimensional art, solid areas of positive space in the design are broken up by circles of negative space. This mask reflects Dick’s background with two-dimensional art and is an extension of his painting practice and keen eye for design.

Christopher W. Smith