Guerrero

21 inches, painted wood

It is unlikely that this mask, or any of those shown in Cordry’s book Mexican Masks, was actually carved by Jose Rodriquez. Janet Brody Esser in Behind the Mask in Mexico doubts if he really existed and that these wonderful works of art may have been produced by more than one carver. None the less, when Cordry says "that Rodriquez art was nurtured by a fine tradition to which he brought his own freedom of expression and exaggerated sense of design" he was so right. These masks are amazingly creative and influenced how most of the decorative masks after 1980 would look. Of course, they were rarely this good.