The present sculpture reflects Turnbull’s interest in totemic African sculpture, which is evident in the stylistic influences and formation of this mask. It is closely modelled on masks he likely admired in the ethnographic section of the British Museum. This sculpture is interesting in that it merges Turnbull’s interest in totemic sculpture that he cultivated in the 1950s with a return to bronze in his later career, when he started to find the fragility of plastics too limiting. Turnbull continued to produce masks throughout his career. Tragic Mask’s title links it to what Turnbull considered to be the universality of theatre and the theatrical.