Northwest Coast art
Encyclopedia
Northwest Coast art is the term commonly applied to a style of art created primarily by artists from Tlingit, Haida, Tsimshian
, Kwakwaka'wakw
, Nuu-chah-nulth and other First Nations
and Native American
tribes of the Northwest Coast
of North America, from pre-European-contact times up to the present.
artists. Chilkat weaving
applies formline designs to textiles. Tlingit, Haida, and Tsimshian have traditionally produced Chilkat woven regalia, from wool and yellow cedar bark, that is important for civic and ceremonial events, including potlatches.
The patterns depicted include natural forms such as bears, ravens, eagles, and humans; legendary creature
s such as thunderbirds
and sisiutl
s; and abstract forms made up of the characteristic 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 First Nations household items such as 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.
. The production of their art dropped drastically as well.
Toward the end of the 19th century, Northwest Coast artists began producing work for commercial sale, such as small argillite
carvings. The end of the 19th century also saw large-scale export of totem poles, masks and other traditional art
objects from the region to museums and private collectors around the world. Some of this export was accompanied by financial compensation to people who had a right to sell the art, and some was not.
In the early 20th century, very few First Nations artists in the Northwest Coast region were producing art. A tenuous link to older traditions remained in artists such as Charles Gladstone and Mungo Martin
. The mid-20th century saw a revival of interest and production of Northwest Coast art, due to the influence of artists and critics such as Bill Reid
, a grandson of Charles Gladstone. It also saw an increasing demand for the return of art objects that were illegally or immorally taken from First Nations communities. This demand continues to the present day. Today, there are numerous art schools teaching formal Northwest Coast art of various styles, and there is a growing market for new art in this style.
, no Native American nations of Washington and Oregon states produced totem poles and other characteristic, formline, Northwest Coast-style art objects before European contact.
Traditionally, within a given community, some patterns and motifs could be used only by certain families and lineages, or with the agreement of those families and lineages. Today in British Columbia
it is generally acknowledged that only First Nations
artists of the appropriate nation have the moral right to produce art of given types and using given motifs. Some non-Native artists, such as John Livingston, have been adopted into First Nations and have thus formally acquired the right to produce such art. In some Nations such as the Haida adoptions are simply seen as gestures and claims to produce work are viewed as economic and cultural appropriation.
, who is widely acknowledged as a master whose art is in all the great collections around the world. Also Guujaaw
, another notable carver and builder who is also Haida political leader. Other notable Northwest Coast artists of the 20th and 21st centuries include James Schoppert
, Bill Reid
, Mungo Martin
, Ellen Neel
, Robert Davidson
, Willie Seaweed
, Don Yeomans, Amos Wallace, Reginald Peterson, Freda Diesing
, and Tony Hunt
. Notable academics and publishers of northwest Northwest Coast include Bill Holm
, Bill Reid, Hilary Stewart and Dr George MacDonald.
Tsimshian
The Tsimshian are an indigenous people of the Pacific Northwest Coast. Tsimshian translates to Inside the Skeena River. Their communities are in British Columbia and Alaska, around Terrace and Prince Rupert and the southernmost corner of Alaska on Annette Island. There are approximately 10,000...
, Kwakwaka'wakw
Kwakwaka'wakw
The Kwakwaka'wakw are an Indigenous group of First Nations peoples, numbering about 5,500, who live in British Columbia on northern Vancouver Island and the adjoining mainland and islands.Kwakwaka'wakw translates as "Those who speak Kwak'wala", describing the collective nations within the area that...
, Nuu-chah-nulth and other First Nations
First Nations
First Nations is a term that collectively refers to various Aboriginal peoples in Canada who are neither Inuit nor Métis. There are currently over 630 recognised First Nations governments or bands spread across Canada, roughly half of which are in the provinces of Ontario and British Columbia. The...
and Native American
Native Americans in the United States
Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...
tribes of the Northwest Coast
Pacific Northwest
The Pacific Northwest is a region in northwestern North America, bounded by the Pacific Ocean to the west and, loosely, by the Rocky Mountains on the east. Definitions of the region vary and there is no commonly agreed upon boundary, even among Pacific Northwesterners. A common concept of the...
of North America, from pre-European-contact times up to the present.
Distinguishing characteristics
Northwest Coast art is distinguished by the use of formlines, and the use of characteristic shapes referred to as ovoids, U forms and S forms. Before European contact, the most common media were wood (often Western red cedar), stone, and copper; since European contact, paper, canvas, glass, and precious metals have also been used. If paint is used, the most common colours are red and black, but yellow is also often used, particularly among Kwakwaka'wakwKwakwaka'wakw
The Kwakwaka'wakw are an Indigenous group of First Nations peoples, numbering about 5,500, who live in British Columbia on northern Vancouver Island and the adjoining mainland and islands.Kwakwaka'wakw translates as "Those who speak Kwak'wala", describing the collective nations within the area that...
artists. Chilkat weaving
Chilkat weaving
Chilkat weaving is a traditional form of weaving practiced by Tlingit, Haida, Tsimshian, and other Northwest coastal tribes of Alaska and British Columbia. Chilkat blankets are worn by high-ranking tribal members on civic or ceremonial occasions, including dances.-Background:The name derives from...
applies formline designs to textiles. Tlingit, Haida, and Tsimshian have traditionally produced Chilkat woven regalia, from wool and yellow cedar bark, that is important for civic and ceremonial events, including potlatches.
The patterns depicted include natural forms such as bears, ravens, eagles, and humans; legendary creature
Legendary creature
A legendary creature is a mythological or folkloric creature.-Origin:Some mythical creatures have their origin in traditional mythology and have been believed to be real creatures, for example the dragon, the unicorn, and griffin...
s such as thunderbirds
Thunderbird (mythology)
The Thunderbird is a legendary creature in certain North American indigenous peoples' history and culture. It is considered a "supernatural" bird of power and strength...
and sisiutl
Sisiutl
The Sisiutl is one of the most powerful crests, and mythological creatures in the mythology of the Kwakwaka’wakw, Nuu-chah-nulth, Skwxwu7mesh and various other Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast, and figures prominently in their art, dances and songs...
s; and abstract forms made up of the characteristic 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 First Nations household items such as 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.
History
After European contact, in the late 18th century, the peoples who produced Northwest Coast art suffered huge population losses due to diseases such as smallpox, and cultural losses due to assimilation into European-North American cultureCulture of the United States
The Culture of the United States is a Western culture originally influenced by European cultures. It has been developing since long before the United States became a country with its own unique social and cultural characteristics such as dialect, music, arts, social habits, cuisine, and folklore...
. The production of their art dropped drastically as well.
Toward the end of the 19th century, Northwest Coast artists began producing work for commercial sale, such as small argillite
Argillite
An argillite is a fine-grained sedimentary rock composed predominantly of indurated clay particles. Argillaceous rocks are basically lithified muds and oozes. They contain variable amounts of silt-sized particles. The argillites grade into shale when the fissile layering typical of shale is...
carvings. The end of the 19th century also saw large-scale export of totem poles, masks and other traditional art
Painting
Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a surface . The application of the medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush but other objects can be used. In art, the term painting describes both the act and the result of the action. However, painting is...
objects from the region to museums and private collectors around the world. Some of this export was accompanied by financial compensation to people who had a right to sell the art, and some was not.
In the early 20th century, very few First Nations artists in the Northwest Coast region were producing art. A tenuous link to older traditions remained in artists such as Charles Gladstone and Mungo Martin
Mungo Martin
Chief Mungo Martin or Nakapenkem , Datsa , was an important figure in Northwest Coast style art, specifically that of the Kwakwaka'wakw peoples. He was a major contributor to Kwakwaka'wakw art, especially in the realm of wood sculpture and painting...
. The mid-20th century saw a revival of interest and production of Northwest Coast art, due to the influence of artists and critics such as Bill Reid
Bill Reid
William Ronald Reid, OBC was a Canadian artist whose works included jewelry, sculpture, screen-printing, and painting. His work is featured on the Canadian $20 banknote.-Biography:...
, a grandson of Charles Gladstone. It also saw an increasing demand for the return of art objects that were illegally or immorally taken from First Nations communities. This demand continues to the present day. Today, there are numerous art schools teaching formal Northwest Coast art of various styles, and there is a growing market for new art in this style.
Cultural appropriateness
Although neighbouring peoples such as the Salish nations also traditionally produced art which shares some of the characteristics of Northwest Coast art, these styles of art are not usually included in the term, since the patterns and artifacts produced are rather different. For example, Salish peoples traditionally created standing welcome figures not created by other Northwest Coast peoples, did not traditionally create totem poles, and did not traditionally use the form lines and shapes of other Northwest Coast peoples. One corollary of this fact is that — contrary to popular belief — other than some of the peoples of the Olympic PeninsulaOlympic Peninsula
The Olympic Peninsula is the large arm of land in western Washington state of the USA, that lies across Puget Sound from Seattle. It is bounded on the west by the Pacific Ocean, the north by the Strait of Juan de Fuca, and the east by Puget Sound. Cape Alava, the westernmost point in the contiguous...
, no Native American nations of Washington and Oregon states produced totem poles and other characteristic, formline, Northwest Coast-style art objects before European contact.
Traditionally, within a given community, some patterns and motifs could be used only by certain families and lineages, or with the agreement of those families and lineages. Today in British Columbia
British Columbia
British Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is known for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu . Its name was chosen by Queen Victoria in 1858...
it is generally acknowledged that only First Nations
First Nations
First Nations is a term that collectively refers to various Aboriginal peoples in Canada who are neither Inuit nor Métis. There are currently over 630 recognised First Nations governments or bands spread across Canada, roughly half of which are in the provinces of Ontario and British Columbia. The...
artists of the appropriate nation have the moral right to produce art of given types and using given motifs. Some non-Native artists, such as John Livingston, have been adopted into First Nations and have thus formally acquired the right to produce such art. In some Nations such as the Haida adoptions are simply seen as gestures and claims to produce work are viewed as economic and cultural appropriation.
Notable Northwest Coast artists
Notable Northwest Coast artists of the 19th century include Charles EdenshawCharles Edenshaw
Charles Edenshaw was a Haida artist from Haida Gwaii, British Columbia, Canada. He is known for his woodcarving, argillite carving, jewellery, and painting.-Background:...
, who is widely acknowledged as a master whose art is in all the great collections around the world. Also Guujaaw
Guujaaw
Guujaaw is a traditional singer, wood carver, traditional medicine practitioner and political activist. He is a Haida, of the Raven Clan of Skedans.-Background:Beginning in the 1970s, Guujaaw worked to protect Gwaii Haanas from logging activity...
, another notable carver and builder who is also Haida political leader. Other notable Northwest Coast artists of the 20th and 21st centuries include James Schoppert
James Schoppert
Robert James "Jim" Schoppert , was a Tlingit Alaska Native born in Juneau, Alaska. His father was of German descent and his mother Tlingit. During his life, Schoppert became one of the most prodigious and influential Alaska Native artists of the twentieth century. His work includes carving,...
, Bill Reid
Bill Reid
William Ronald Reid, OBC was a Canadian artist whose works included jewelry, sculpture, screen-printing, and painting. His work is featured on the Canadian $20 banknote.-Biography:...
, Mungo Martin
Mungo Martin
Chief Mungo Martin or Nakapenkem , Datsa , was an important figure in Northwest Coast style art, specifically that of the Kwakwaka'wakw peoples. He was a major contributor to Kwakwaka'wakw art, especially in the realm of wood sculpture and painting...
, Ellen Neel
Ellen Neel
Ellen Neel was a Kwakwaka'wakw artist woodcarver and is the first woman known to have professionally carved totem poles. She came from Alert Bay, British Columbia, and her work is in public collections throughout the world....
, Robert Davidson
Robert Davidson (artist)
Robert Charles Davidson, CM, OBC , is a Canadian artist of Haida heritage. His specialties are in carving , sculpture and painting....
, Willie Seaweed
Willie Seaweed
-Early life:Kwakwaka'wakw carver Willie Seaweed was born in 1893 at Blunden Harbour, British Columbia, where he lived until his death in 1967. Both his parents came from chiefly lines and so as chief of the Nakwaktokw band, Seaweed was called Heyhlamas or Rights Maker. His informal name was...
, Don Yeomans, Amos Wallace, Reginald Peterson, Freda Diesing
Freda Diesing
Freda Diesing was one of very few female carvers of Northwest Coast totem poles and a member of the Haida First Nation of British Columbia, Canada....
, and Tony Hunt
Tony Hunt (artist)
Tony Hunt is a Canadian First Nations artist of Kwakwaka'wakw ancestry noted for his work carving totem poles.He was born in 1942 at the Kwakwaka'wakw community of Alert Bay, British Columbia. He received early training from his maternal grandfather Mungo Martin...
. Notable academics and publishers of northwest Northwest Coast include Bill Holm
Bill Holm (art historian)
Bill Holm is a U.S. artist, author and art historian specializing in the visual arts of Northwest Coast Native Americans as well as a practitioner and teacher of the Northwest Coast art style...
, Bill Reid, Hilary Stewart and Dr George MacDonald.
See also
- Alaska Native artAlaska Native ArtAlaska Native cultures are rich and diverse, and their art forms are magnificent representations of their history, skills, tradition, adaptation, and nearly twenty thousand years of continuous life in some of the most remote places on earth. Yet these art forms are largely unseen and unknown...
- Button blanketButton BlanketA button blanket is wool wearing blanket embellished with mother-of-pearl buttons, created by Northwest Coastal tribes.Rather than sleeping equipment, the blankets are used as capes and gifts at ceremonial dances and potlatches....
- Chilkat weavingChilkat weavingChilkat weaving is a traditional form of weaving practiced by Tlingit, Haida, Tsimshian, and other Northwest coastal tribes of Alaska and British Columbia. Chilkat blankets are worn by high-ranking tribal members on civic or ceremonial occasions, including dances.-Background:The name derives from...
- Coast Salish artCoast Salish artCoast Salish art is an art unique to the Pacific Northwest Coast among the Coast Salish peoples. Coast Salish are peoples from the Pacific Northwest Coast made up of many different languages and cultural characteristics. Coast Salish territory covers the coast of British Columbia and Washington state...
- Kwakwaka'wakw artKwakwaka'wakw artKwakwaka'wakw art describes the art of the Kwakwaka'wakw peoples of the Pacific Northwest. It encompasses a wide variety of woodcarving, sculpture, painting, weaving and dance. Kwakwaka'wakw arts are exemplified in totem poles, masks, wooden carvings, jewelry and woven blankets. Visual arts are...
- Haida Argillite CarvingsHaida Argillite CarvingsHaida argillite carvings are a sculptural tradition among the Haida indigenous nation of the Northwest Coast of North America, which came into existence in the early 19th century and continues today.-Background:...
- Native American artNative American artVisual arts by indigenous peoples of the Americas encompasses the visual artistic traditions of the indigenous peoples of the Americas from ancient times to the present...
- Totem poleTotem poleTotem poles are monumental sculptures carved from large trees, mostly Western Red Cedar, by cultures of the indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast of North America...
- Transformation maskTransformation maskA transformation mask is a type of mask used by indigenous peoples of the Northwest Coast and Alaska in ritual dances. These masks usually depict an outer, animal visage, which the performer can open by pulling a string to reveal an inner, human face carved in wood...
External links
- Bill Holm Center for the Study of Northwest Coast Art at the Burke MuseumBurke Museum of Natural History and CultureThe Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture has been a Washington state museum since 1899. It is located at the University of Washington campus at the intersection of N.E. 45th Street and 17th Avenue N.E. in Seattle, Washington, USA, in the University District. It is the only major natural...
- Reciprocal Research Network
- Northwest Coast Native Art Gallery: Steinbrueck Native Gallery (Seattle, WA)
- Coastal Peoples Gallery (Vancouver, Canada)
- Spirit Wrestler Gallery (Vancouver, Canada)
- Coastal Arts
- Coghlan NW Coast Art
- Free Spirit Gallery
- Douglas Reynolds Gallery
- Alcheringa Gallery
- Contemporary Haida artist Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas
- The Legacy Ltd Seattle
Further reading
- Northwest Coast Indian Painting: House Fronts and Interior Screens by Edward Malin, Timber Press, 1999, ISBN 0-88192-471-7, 9780881924718, 288 pp.