What Do Red and Blue Mean in Northwest Coast Indian Art

Totem Poles, a blazon of Northwest Coast art

Northwest Coast fine art is the term commonly applied to a style of art created primarily by artists from Tlingit, Haida, Heiltsuk, Nuxalk, Tsimshian, Kwakwaka'wakw, Nuu-chah-nulth and other Start Nations and Native American tribes of the Northwest Declension of North America, from pre-European-contact times upwards to the present.

Distinguishing characteristics [edit]

Namgis, Thunderbird Transformation Mask, 19th century. The Thunderbird is believed to be an Bequeathed Sky Being of the Namgis association of the Kwakwaka'wakw, who say that when this bird ruffles its feathers, it causes thunder and when it blinks its eyes, lightning flashes. Brooklyn Museum

2-dimensional Northwest Coast art is distinguished by the utilize of formlines, and the employ of characteristic shapes referred to every bit ovoids, U forms and Southward forms. Before European contact, the most mutual media were wood (oftentimes Western red cedar), rock, and copper; since European contact, paper, canvas, glass, and precious metals have too been used. If paint is used, the most common colours are scarlet and blackness, but yellowish is also frequently used, particularly among Kwakwaka'wakw artists.^[1] Chilkat weaving applies formline designs to textiles. Tlingit, Haida, and Tsimshian have traditionally produced Chilkat woven regalia, from wool and xanthous cedar bawl, that is important for civic and ceremonial events, including potlatches.

The patterns depicted include natural forms such every bit bears, ravens, eagles, orcas, and humans; legendary creatures such equally thunderbirds and sisiutls; and abstract forms made upwardly of the feature Northwest Coast shapes. Totem poles are the most well-known artifacts produced using this style. Northwest Coast artists are also notable for producing characteristic "bent-corner" or "bentwood" boxes, masks, and canoes. Northwest Coast designs were also used to decorate traditional Beginning Nations household items such every bit spoons, ladles, baskets, hats, and paddles; since European contact, the Northwest Coast art style has increasingly been used in gallery-oriented forms such as paintings, prints and sculptures.

Mary Ebbets Chase - Chilkat blanket

Although highly conventionalized decorative design occurs all along the coast, to the south and due north of this center the representational motive becomes progressively stronger. Krickeberg (1925: 144) characterizes this equally a fresh naturalism to the south amid the Kwakiutl, Nootka, and Salish and a certain relationship to Eskimo engraving and painting among the Tlingit to the due north. The shift in accent is gradual - Bella Bella art, for example, has a shut affinity to its Coast Tsimshian counterpart. Two-dimensional art of all these groups, however, is much more than closely related than is their sculpture, specially among the northern tribes of Tlingit, Haida, Tsimshian, and Bella Bella.^[ii]

Cloth arts from the Northwest Coast include Chilkat weaving, Raven's Tail Weavings, Button Blankets, and elaborate ceremonial regalia using a range of materials. Three dimension art was created from many materials, notably wood.

History [edit]

Prior to contact with Europeans, Commencement Nations on the Northwest coast evolved circuitous social and ceremonial institutions, including the potlatch system, hereditary systems of rank and descent, ceremonial societies, and permanent villages. Social organization involved groups of kin, reckoned variously matrilineally, patrilineally or bi-lineally. These groups concur various tangible and intangible rights and properties. Amongst them are origin stories. Many instances of Northwest coast art are visual references to these stories.

After European contact, in the late 18th century, the peoples who produced Northwest Coast art suffered huge population losses due to diseases such every bit smallpox, and cultural losses due to colonization and assimilation into European-Northward American culture. The production of their fine art dropped drastically as well.

Toward the cease of the 19th century, Northwest Declension artists began producing work for commercial sale, such as small argillite carvings. The end of the 19th century also saw large-scale consign of totem poles, masks and other traditional art objects from the region to museums and individual collectors around the world. Some of this export was accompanied past financial compensation to people who had a correct to sell the fine art, and some was not.

In the early on 20th century, very few Commencement Nations artists in the Northwest Coast region were producing art. A tenuous link to older traditions remained in artists such equally Charles Gladstone, Henry Speck, Ellen Neel, Stanley George, and Mungo Martin. The mid-20th century saw a revival of involvement and production of Northwest Coast fine art, due to the influence of artists and academics such every bit Pecker Reid (a grandson of Charles Gladstone) and Beak Holm. A revival of traditional ceremonial means also drove the increased production of traditional arts. This fourth dimension also saw an increasing need for the return of fine art objects that were illegally or immorally taken from First Nations communities. This demand continues to the present mean solar day. Today, in that location are numerous art schools teaching formal Northwest Coast fine art of various styles, and there is a growing marketplace for new art in this style.^[3]

The revival of ceremonial life, following the lifting of the potlatch ban - take too driven production of traditional clothing, painting and carving for use in ceremonies.

Cultural appropriateness [edit]

Although neighbouring peoples such as the Coast Salish peoples also traditionally produced art which shares some characteristics of Northwest Declension fine art, these styles of art are non normally included in the term, since the patterns and artifacts produced are rather different. For example, Salish peoples traditionally created continuing welcome figures not created past other Northwest Coast peoples, did non traditionally create totem poles, and did not traditionally use the form lines and shapes of other Northwest Coast peoples.^[5] I corollary of this fact is that — opposite to popular belief — other than some of the peoples of the Olympic Peninsula, no Native American nations of Washington and Oregon states produced totem poles and other characteristic, formline, Northwest Declension-style fine art objects before European contact.^[6]

Traditionally, within a given community, some patterns and motifs could be used only by sure families and lineages, or with the agreement of those families and lineages. Today, in British Columbia, it is a bespeak of contention whether but First Nations artists of the appropriate nation have the moral right to produce art of given types and using given motifs, or whether merely the intent of the person and the respect given to the respective peoples are meaning. Likewise, in Ontario, similar controversies have arisen over whether non-Native artists take the moral right to make use of Native motifs and visual art styles.^[7] Some non-Native artists, such every bit John Livingston, take been adopted into First Nations and have thus formally acquired the right to produce such fine art.^[1] In some nations, such as the Haida, adoptions are seen by some only as gestures, and production of work in their trademark way by outsiders may, in some contexts, be viewed as economical and cultural appropriation.^{[ citation needed ]}

Notable artists [edit]

Notable Northwest Coast artists of the 19th century include- Albert Edward Edenshaw^[viii] (Haida), Helm Carpenter^[ix] (Heiltsuk), Willie Seaweed (Kwakwak'wakw), Charles Edenshaw, who is widely acknowledged as a master whose art is in all the corking collections around the world.

Also Guujaaw, another notable carver and architect who is too Haida political leader. Other notable Northwest Declension artists of the 20th and 21st centuries include Charlie James, Henry Speck, Doug Cranmer, Stanley George, James Schoppert, Bill Reid, Mungo Martin, Ellen Neel, Robert Davidson, Swain Dick, Willie Seaweed, Roy Henry Vickers, Don Yeomans, Jay Simeon, Amos Wallace, Lyle Wilson, Sam (Sammy) Robinson, Ron Hamilton, Art Thompson, Joe David, Reginald Peterson,^[10] Freda Diesing, Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun, and Tony Chase.

Notable art historians and thinkers [edit]

Notable academics and publishers of northwest Northwest Coast include Bill Holm, Bill Reid, Hilary Stewart, Bill McLennan, Martha Blackness, and George F. MacDonald. Doreen Jensen and Polly Sargent's book Robes of Power (1986) deals with ceremonial robes - called Button coating - and their history and forms. Cheryl Samuel and her book The Raven'due south Tail (1987) describes northern weaving style known as Raven's Tail - used to make ceremonial robes and other regalia.

Emily Carr, though she did not formally adopt the techniques, normally used native art as the motif of many of her early paintings.

See besides [edit]

Alaska Native art
Push coating
Chilkat weaving
Coast Salish art
Formline art
Haida argillite carvings
Kwakwaka'wakw art
Native American art
Potlatch
Totem pole
Transformation mask

Notes [edit]

^ ^a ^b Bill Holm, Northwest Declension Indian Art: An Analysis of Class. University of Washington Press, Seattle, 1965
^ Holm, Bill. Northwest Coast Indian Art: An analysis of Course. Thomas Burke Memorial Washington State Museum Monograph No. 1. Douglas & McIntyre. Vancouver/Toronto. 1965. p. 20. ISBN 0-88894-172-2
^ Jonathan Meuli. Shadow House: Interpretations of Northwest Declension Art ISBN 90-5823-083-Ten
^ "Tommy Joseph." Archived 2009-06-fifteen at the Wayback Motorcar Alaska Native Artists. (retrieved 27 Dec 2009
^ Hilary Stewart. Looking at Totem Poles. Douglas & McIntyre, Vancouver/Toronto, 1993
^ Hilary Stewart,Looking at Indian Art of the Northwest Declension. Douglas & McIntyre, Vancouver/Toronto, 19795
^ Nasser, Shanifa. "Toronto gallery cancels evidence later concerns creative person 'bastardizes' Indigenous art". CBC . Retrieved 21 September 2018.
^ MacDonald, George F. Haida Art. Joe Wilson. University of Washington Printing. Seattle. 1996. p.p. 211-212. ISBN 0-295-97561-X
^ McLennan, Bill and Karen Duffek. The Transforming Prototype: Painted Arts of the Northwest Declension Offset Nations. UBC Press. 2000. ISBN 0-7748-0427-0
^ Fair, Susan W. (2006). Alaska native art : tradition, innovation, continuity. Fairbanks, Alas.: Univ. of Alaska Press. ISBNi-889963-79-8.

References [edit]

Halpin, Marjorie G. (1981). Totem Poles: An Illustrated Guide . Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press.
Jensen, Doreen; Sargent, Polly. Robes of Power: Totem Poles on Material. ISBN0-7748-0264-2.
Jonaitis, Aldona; Boas, Franz. A Wealth of Thought: Franz Boas on Native American Fine art . ISBN0-295-97325-0.
MacDonald, George F. (1996). Haida Art. Seattle: University of Washington Press. pp. 211–212. ISBNane-550-54402-0.
McLennan, Pecker; Duffek, Karen (2000). The Transforming Epitome: Painted Arts of the Northwest Declension First Nations. UBC Press. ISBN0-7748-0427-0.
Ostrowitz, Judith. Privileging the Past. University of Washington Printing. ISBN0-295-97814-7.

External links [edit]

Beak Holm Center for the Study of Northwest Declension Art at the Burke Museum
Reciprocal Research Network

mcilwraiththrooked.blogspot.com

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northwest_Coast_art

McIlwraith Throoked