Bear Figure
date: label: Accession Date
content: 28 Aug 1992
name: label: Donor Name
content: Hirshhorn Museum & Sculpture Garden
notes: label: Notes
content: PROVENIENCE UNKNOWN. STANDING FIGURE OF A BEAR. LEFT ARM HELD STRAIGHT OUT FROM BODY. RIGHT ARM HELD OUT IN FRONT. HEAD TURNED AND FACING RIGHT. RIGHT LEG TURNED AND FACING RIGHT. INCISED FEATURES. SMALL EARS AND TAIL. CRACK ACROSS LOWER TORSO. ATTACHED TO A WOODEN BASE. YELLOW AND GREEN STONE.
label: Notes
content: SEE SI ARCHIVES
label: Notes
content: Wooden base of sculpture has a piece of tape marked "Private Collection J.H.H.". This is presumably Joseph Herman Hirshhorn (1899 - 1981), founding donor of the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden.
label: Notes
content: Dancing bear sculpture.
label: Notes
content: Some history on the "dancing bear" type sculpture follows. Inuit artist Pauta Saila (1916/1917 - 2009) was born in Kilaparutua camp on Baffin Island; he made Kinngait (Cape Dorset), Nunavut, Canada his artistic community after moving there in the early 1960s. In the 1970s he began making his sculptures of upright "dancing" polar bears and is generally credited with originating this type. See https://katilvik.com/browse/artists/956-pauta-saila-rca/ , and https://www.inuitartfoundation.org/profiles/artist/Pauta-Saila , retrieved 29 Dec 2022.
label: Record Last Modified
content: 17 Jun 2025
label: Specimen Count
content: 1
place: label: Place
content: Canada, North America
topic: label: Topic
content: Ethnology
culture: label: Culture
content: Eskimo, Inuit
setName: label: See more items in
content: Anthropology
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: NMNH - Anthropology Dept.
identifier: label: Accession Number
content: 370312
label: USNM Number
content: E427870-0
objectType: label: Object Type
content: Sculpture
physicalDescription: label: Length - Object
content: 44 cm
label: Width - Object
content: 36 cm
label: Depth - Object
content: 17 cm