A few weeks ago I talked about ‘why artists make paintings that are unrecognizeable’. I put the oweness, in part, to the invention of the camera in the 19th century and that artists started to question whether their skills were needed to paint or record the world around them now that the camera could do the job just as well.

There was another major aspect in the modern world that shifted the way artists were thinking.  The world was opening up and it was becoming fashionable to collect curiosities from cultures that were previously unknown to the public. Adventurers were bringing back souvenirs from their travels – these included South American, Asian, African and First Nations traditional objects, poles & masks. These objects represented spiritualism in deities that were completely different from the religious icons that Europeans were familiar with. These objects of curiosity were highlighted across Europe in wealthy homes, museums and were even sold in ‘curiosity shops’. They were popping up everywhere so much so that a Surrealist artist called André Breton had a Kwakwaka’wakw mask in his collection from Alert Bay.

 
Put yourself in the Christian based European culture of 100 years ago ... How would you have reacted to masks from a totally different, and alien, culture. Would you have been a little curious or maybe even a little frightened. Artists employ their emotional , intellectual and practical skills in order to come to terms with the new, the curious and even the frightful.