GUATEMALAN MASKS IMAGERY AT THE SOUTHWEST MUSEUM

By Florence Jeanne Goodman

"No country proves better than Guatemala that the art of its people reflects the quality of its life," said folk art collector Gordon Frost, who has spent many years studying this remarkable Central American country. This is why he has collected the rich variety of masks for the dance, which are now on display through December at the Southwest Museum in Los Angeles.

The masks, which vary dramatically from region to region, are rich in aspects of Guatemalan ethnic life, but they are equally fascinating as individual objects of art. And, if these two areas of interest are not enough, the masks also reflect the natural color and forms of the culture’s variegated flora and fauna.

In the spiritual dances of the Guatemalan Indians, their masks play as intensive a role today as they did historically, and like their costumes and languages, they will vary from village to village.
In addition to the important religious masks used in praying for a good deer hunt or thanking the appropriate saint or god for good fortune, masks are used to retell stories of the Spanish conquest or illustrate attitudes dealing with sex and fertility.

All the human values of the Guatemalan culture, all the beliefs, all the fears are represented or reflected in the masks the people create. Animals, men, devils, and saints made of carved and painted wood or other native materials eloquently tell the folkways of this creative, imaginative, and artistic people. Gordon Frost has brought his large and amazing collection of these treasures to the Southwest Museum in the Highland Park section of Los Angeles. He has also prepared a beautiful and very scholarly monograph on the exhibition with the help of photographer-designer Pok Chi Lau. The monograph is on sale for $3.75 at the Southwest Museum.

The purpose of this show, and indeed of the great part of Mr. Frost’s life, is to create an understanding and appreciation of one of the few intact Indian cultures remaining in the world, that which is still to be found in Guatemala. Here one can still see a peoples’ daily life, historical past, and religious experience all part of a wholistic reality rather than as aspects of a shattered vision. Dr. Carl Dentzel, director of the Southwest Museum, said in his foreword to Frost’s monograph, Guatemalan Mask Imagery, " A simple primitive village life still exists in Guatemala with villagers wearing distinctive costumes and following ancient ways of life. The native Guatemalans’ life style is inspiring. People everywhere could learn from the Guatemalan example an appreciation of nature, a respect for their fellow man, and awareness of one one's culture, and a participation in it."

In addition to all this, it must also be said that the super-natural, the unique, the fanciful may be seen operating in intimate relationship with a wonderful people who work magic with their masks in more ways than one. Few chances are available for us to step out of our own culture and into another in so delightful and inexpensive a way as is afforded by attendance at the Southwest Museum offering during November and December. ø