Read Ebook {PDF EPUB} Indian Art of the Northwest Coast A Dialogue on Craftsmanship & Aesthetics by Bill Holm Indian Art of the Northwest Coast: A Dialogue on Craftsmanship & Aesthetics by Bill Holm. Our systems have detected unusual traffic activity from your network. Please complete this reCAPTCHA to demonstrate that it's you making the requests and not a robot. If you are having trouble seeing or completing this challenge, this page may help. If you continue to experience issues, you can contact JSTOR support. Block Reference: #0129ed20-c335-11eb-a6ab-1704d8bbdd02 VID: #(null) IP: 188.246.226.140 Date and time: Tue, 01 Jun 2021 23:56:38 GMT. Indian Art of the Northwest Coast: A Dialogue on Craftsmanship & Aesthetics by Bill Holm. Our systems have detected unusual traffic activity from your network. Please complete this reCAPTCHA to demonstrate that it's you making the requests and not a robot. If you are having trouble seeing or completing this challenge, this page may help. If you continue to experience issues, you can contact JSTOR support. Block Reference: #01344d60-c335-11eb-b7ec-ab17eb1f1dbc VID: #(null) IP: 188.246.226.140 Date and time: Tue, 01 Jun 2021 23:56:38 GMT. Indian Art of the Northwest Coast: A Dialogue on Craftsmanship & Aesthetics by Bill Holm. Abbott, Donald N. (editor) 1981 The World is as Sharp as a Knife: An Anthology on Honor of Wilson Duff , British Columbia Provincial Museum, Victoria. Barbeau, Marius 1929 Totem Poles of the Gitksan, Upper Skeena River, British Columbia , National Museum of Canada. 1950 Totem Poles vol. 1 & 2, National Museum of Canada. 1957 Haida Carvers in Argillite . National Museum of Canada. Black, Martha 1997 Bella Bella: A Season of Heiltsuk Art . Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto and Douglas & McIntyre, Vancouver. Blackman, Margaret 1985 Contemporary Northwest Coast Art for Ceremonial Use. American Indian Art Magazine 10 (3): 24-37. Blackman, Margaret and Edwon S. Hall Jr. 1986 Snakes and Clowns: Art Thompson and the Westcoast Heritage. American Indian Art Magazine, 11(2):30-45. Brown, Steve 1997 Formlines Changing Form: Northwest Coast Art as an Evolving Tradition. American Indian Art Magazine 22(2):62-73, 81- 83. 1998 Native Visions: Evolution in Northwest Coast Art form the Eighteenth through the Twentieth Century . Seattle Art Museum/ University of Washington Press, Seattle. Carlson, Roy L. (editor) 1983 Indian Art Traditions of the Northwest Coast . Archaeology Press, Simon Fraser University. Drew, Leslie and Douglas Wilson 1980 Argillite: Art of the Haida . Hancock House Publishers, North Vancouver. Duff, Wilson 1956 Prehistoric Stone Sculpture of the Fraser River and Gulf of Georgia. Anthropology in British Columbia , No. 5, pp 15-151, British Columbia Provincial Museum, Victoria. 1975 Images: Stone B.C . Hancock House Publishers, Saanichton, BC. Duff, Wilson with Bill Holm and Bill Reid 1967 Arts of the Raven . The Vancouver Art Gallery. Duffek, Karen 1983 A Guide to Buying Contemporary Northwest Coast Indain Arts . University of British Columbia Museum of Anthropology, Vancouver, BC. 1986 Bill Reid: Beyond the Essential Form . University of British Columbia Press, Vancouver, BC. Feder, Norman 1983 Incised Relief Carving of the Halkomelem and Straits Salish. American Indian Art Magazine 8 (2):46-53. Gunther, Edna 1966 Art in the Life of the Northwest Coast Indians . Portland Art Museum. Hall, Edwin S., M.B. Blackman and V. Rickard 1981 Northwest Coast Indian Graphics . Douglas and McIntyre, Vancouver, BC. Halpin, Marjorie M. 1981 Totem Poles: An Illustrated Guide . University of British Columbia Press, Vancouver, BC. Hawthorn, Audrey 1979 Kwakiutl Art, Douglas and McIntyre, Vancouver, BC. Henrikson, Steve 1993 Terrifying Visages: War Helmets of the Tlingit Indians, American Indian Art Magazine 19 (1):48-59. Herem, Barry 1998 Bill Reid: Making the Northwest Coast Famous. American Indian Art Magazine 24(1): 42-51. Holm, Bill 1965 Northwest Coast Indian Art: An Analysis of Form . University of Washington Press 1972 Crooked Beak of Heaven . University of Washington Press. 1983a The Box of Daylight . University of Washington Press 1983b Smoky-Top: The Art and Times of Willie Seaweed . University of Washington Press 1987 Spirit and Ancestor , Burke Museum, Seattle, and Douglas and McIntyre, Vancouver, BC 1990 Art, in Handbook of North American Indians , Vol 7, Northwest Coast. Edited by Wayne Suttles, pp. 602-632. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC 1997 Variations of a Theme: Northern Northwest Coast Painted Boxes. American Indian Art Magazine 22(2): 52-61. Holm, Bill and Bill Reid 1975 Indian Art of the Northwest Coast: A Dialogue on Craftsmanship and Aesthetics . University of Washington Press. Hoover, Alan L. 1993 Bill Reid and Robert Davidson: Innovations in Contemporary Haida Art. American Indian Art Magazine 18(4): 48-55 . Inverarity, Robert B. 195 Art of the Northwest Coast Indian . University of California Press. Jonaitis, Aldona 1978 Land Otters and Shamans: Some Interpretations on Tlingit Charms. American Indian Art Magazine 4 (1): 62-66. 1981 Tlingit Halibut Hooks: An Analysis of the Visual Symbols of a Rite of Passage. Anthropological Papers of the American Museums of Natural History . Vol 57, part 1, pp. 1-48 1986 Art of the Northern Tlingit . University of Washington Press. 1988 From the Land of Totem Poles . American Museum of Natural History, New York & Douglas and McIntyre, Vancouver, BC 1991 (editor) Chiefly Feasts: The Enduring Kwakiutl Potlatch . Douglas and McIntyre, Vancouver, BC 1995 (editor) A Wealth of Thought: Franz Boas on Native American Art . Douglas and McIntyre, Vancouver, BC. King, J.C.H. 1979 Portrait Masks from the Northwest Coast of America . Thames and Hudson, London. MacDonald, George F. 1983 Haida Monumental Art . University of British Columbia Press, Vancouver, BC. 1996 Haida Art . Douglas and McIntyre, Vancouver, BC & Canadian Museum of Civilization, Hull. Macnair, Peter L., Alan Hoover and Kevin Neary 1980 The Legacy . British Columbia Provincial Museum, Victoria. Macnair, Peter L, and Alan Hoover 1984 The Magic Leaves: A History of Haida Argillite Carving . British Columbia Provincial Museum, Victoria. Macnair, Peter L, Robert Joseph and Bruce Grenville 1998 Down from the Shimmering Sky: Masks of the Northwest Coast . Douglas and McIntyre, Vancouver, BC. Malin, Edward 1978 A World of Faces . Timber Press, Portland, Oregon. 1986 Totem Poles of the Pacific Northwest . Timber Press, Portland, Oregon. 1999 Northwest Coast Indian Painting: House Fronts and Interior Screens . Timber Press, Portland, Oregon. Mills, Jeanette C. 1989 The Meares Island Controversy and Joe David: Art in Support of a Cause. American Indian Art Magazine. 14 (4):60-69. Nuytten, Phil 1982 The Totem Carvers: Charlie James, Ellen Neel, Mungo Martin . Panorama Publications, Vancouver. Rhyne, Charles S. 1998 Expanding the Circle: The Art of Guud San Glas, Robert Davidson . Douglas F. Cooley Mem. Seattle Art Museum 1997 The Spirit Within: Northwest Coast Native Art from the John H. Hauberg Collection . Rizzoli, New York and Seattle Art Museum, Seattle. Shadbolt, Doris 1986 Bill Reid . Douglas and McIntyre, Vancouver, BC. Sheehan, Carol 1981 Pipes That Won't Smoke: Coal That Won't Burn . Glenbow Museum, Calgary. Smyly, John & Carolyn 1973 The Totem Poles of Skedans . University of Washington Press. Stelzer, Ulli 1976 Indian Artists at Work . J.J. Douglas, North Vancouver. Steltzer, Ulli and Robert Bringhurst 1991 The Black Canoe: Bill Reid and the Spirit of Haida Gwaii . Douglas and McIntyre, Vancouver, BC. Steltzer, Ulli and Robert Davidson 1994 Eagle Transforming: The Art of Robert Davidson. Douglas and McIntyre, Vancouver, BC. Stewart, Hilary 1979a Looking at Indian Art of the Northwest Coast . Douglas and McIntyre, Vancouver, BC. 1979b Robert Davidson: Haida Printmaker . Douglas and McIntyre, Vancouver, BC. 1984 Cedar: Tree of Life to the Northwest Coast Indians . Douglas and McIntyre, Vancouver, BC. 1990 Totem Poles . Douglas and McIntyre, Vancouver, BC. Sturtevant, William C. (editor) 1974 Boxes and Bowls: Decorated Containers by Nineteenth Century Haida, Tlingit, Bella Bella and Tsimshian Indian Artists ., Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, DC. Thom, Ian (editor) 1993 Robert Davidson: Eagle of the Dawn. Douglas and McIntyre, Vancouver, BC. Vickers, Roy Henry 1988 Solstice: The Art of Roy Henry Vickers. Eagle Dancer Enterprises, Tofino, BC. Wardell, Alan 1978 Objects of Bright Pride: Northwest Coast Indian Art from the American Museum of Natural History. Center for Inter- American Relations. 1996 Tangible Visions: Northwest Coast Indian Shamanism and its Art. Monacelli Press, NY. Wingert, Paul S. 1976 American Indian Sculpture. Hocker Art Books, New York. Wright, Robin 1979 Haida Argillite Ship Pipes. American Indian Art Magazine. 5 (1):40-47. 1982 Haida Argillite: Carved for Sale. American Indian Art Magazine. 8 (1): 48-55. Wyatt, Gary 1994 Spirit Faces: Contemporary Masks of the Northwest Coast . Douglas and McIntyre, Vancouver, BC. Wyatt, Victoria 1984 Shapes of Their Thought: Reflections of Culture Contact in Northwest Coast Indian Art . University of Oklahoma Press. COLOMBIE-BRITANNIQUE, CANADA. Une variété de plats était fabriquée selon la technique dite du bois courbé, dans laquelle une seule planche était coupée, réchauffée à la vapeur et pliée aux trois coins, puis chevillée ensemble au quatrième. L’oeuvre appartient au type de boîtes à longs bords qui étaient habituellement ornés d’un visage humain ou animal à une extrémité, les pattes ou la queue de l’autre ; tandis que les autres parties du corps étaient illustrées sur les côtés par des motifs linéaires segmentés. Leur fonction était de contenir des baies dans de la graisse d’eulakane, du saumon rôti et d’autres mets festifs. La plupart des caractéristiques distinctives de cet impressionnant chef-d’oeuvre de l’art de la côte Nord-Ouest ont été soulignées en détail par Bill Holm et Bill Reid qui en ont discuté longuement. Bill Holm : « À l’une des extrémités de ce bol alimentaire aux bords courbés, je vois des motifs linéaires symétriques. De l’autre côté, je vois un dessin différent. Les mêmes figures de motifs linéaires s’étendent asymétriquement sur deux côtés […] Cela me porte à croire qu’un grand personnage est représenté sur ce bol, avec sa tête à une extrémité et son postérieur à l’autre. J’ai choisi d’appeler ça une baleine. […] C’est une de mes versions préférées de ce design très organisé de la côte Nord-Ouest. Je ne sais avec certitude le lieu de fabrication : le Nord-Tlingit ou peut-être Haïda. C’est très ancien, on retrouve ce genre de dessin sur des pièces documentées du début du XIX e siècle. […] Bill Reid : Un artiste, dans une société à structure rigide, doit exprimer son individualité au maximum, mais au sein de cette structure. Les hommes utilisent ce qu’ils ont à portée de main pour exprimer leur personnalité. Les artistes de la côte Nord-Ouest ont utilisé la structure même de l’art. Vous obtenez ainsi des motifs linéaires à la fois très ouverts et très concentrés. Ici, les motifs linéaires puissants et basiques, qui délimitent le décor, se combinent avec des détails délicats, en particulier dans les formes allongées des yeux sur les côtés. Ils sont étroits, délicats, élégants, mais se rapportent parfaitement à ce qui les entoure. » (Holm et Reid, op. cit. , 1975, pp. 108-110) A variety of serving dishes were made by the bentwood technique, in which a single plank was kerfed, steamed and bent at three corners, then pegged together at the fourth. The present work belongs to the type of deep-sided boxes that were usually decorated with the face of a human or an animal at one end, the legs or tail at the other end, while the other parts of the body were illustrated in segmented formlines design on the sides. Their function was to hold berries or crabappels in eulachon grease, roasted salmon and other feastly delicatesses. Most of the distinctive features of this impressive masterwork of Northwest Coast art were thoroughly highlighted by Bill Holm and Bill Reid who engaged in an extensive and encomiastic discussion of it: “HOLM: I’m going to play the most dangerous game in Northwest Coast art – interpretation. No one has ever successfully fone it. Early anthropologists tried and tried to get interpretations from the a rtistst themselves, but got widely differing interpretations from everybody. […] This is a speculative fling. On one end of this curved-sided food bowl I see a bilaterally symmetrical formline desing. On the opposite end I see a different design. The same formline figures extend asymmetrically on two sides, oriented so that corresponding ends of these figures are adjacent to the same end of the bowl (on one side is the mirror image of the other). That suggests to me that we have one big figure represented on this bowl, with his head at one end, his hind at the other, and his two sides swooping down – a fairly standard organization of this sort of dish. I opt calling this a whale. […] even though the artist has characteristically doubled up his symbolism and made it look like a conventional face with big eyes and droopy cheeks. […] This style – so beautifully represented in this piece – is one of my favorite versions of this highly organized Northwest Coast design. I don’t know for sure it’s place of manufacture, but it’s got to be Northern – Tlingit or perhaps Haida. It’s very old; you find this sort of design on documented pieces from the early part of the XIX th century. It has a massive quality : heavy formlines join in massive areas, with mittle suggestions of relief where they join. These are angular compared to many. There’s a solidarity to this bowl, less seen in others. Background areas are minimized so there’s very little true ground. There are eye sockets in hollowed-out form and tertiary spaces, but the slots between formlines are reduced to think lines. There are no big, open areas of background. […] REID: An artist, in a rigidly structured society, must express his individuality to the utmost, but within that structure. Men utilize what gthey have at hand to express their personalities. Northwest Coast artists used the structure of art itself. So you get both very open and very concentrated formlines. Here powerful, basic formlines, delineating the design, combine with delicate details, particularly in the elongated eye forms on the sides. These are narrow, delicate, exquisite, yet relate perfectly to what surrounds them.” (Holm and Reid, op. cit ., 1975, pp. 108-110) Wave Moving Forward. Like a well known story made into a movie where you know how it ends but you have to watch, such is life. We will all pass along some day eventually but I’m certain that everyone has certain figures in their life that feel immortal. I know for myself that was Bill Holm. By the time I started on my path as an artist Bill had already become legendary for his devotion to understanding and participating in Native culture in the Pacific Northwest. That had been somewhat controversial in the eyes of some however his passing has helped me pinpoint my discomfort around appropriation and it’s definition in my view. There are some who felt the he was appropriating culture when looking back on that long life he lead it was a very different landscape. It’s no secret that Native culture has been all over the map in the public eye. On one hand it’s heralded by boy scout culture and then absolutely despised by some who feel it is downright immoral. The more I look at Bills background on paper and what I know from personal accounts with him he was able to serve as a bridge in his time here. As with any heroic or pivotal figure there are formative years and from what I understand he was drawn to Native culture and the diversity of it as it is not one thing. I worked with him for the first time after spending years working under the guidance of one of his main students Steve Brown. The Bill Holm Center was formed and I was taken back to be invited to be part of it. At that time I was asked to curate works with Bill, Robin Wright and Susan Point. I met Bill formally for the first time although I’d attended several events before but never really had a deep conversation with him. I found myself sitting across the table with him at a small teriyaki restaurant in Seattle. We were waiting for Robin to find a parking spot where we were dropped off and I could feel the silence creep in painfully as I thought what to say so I just admitted I was nervous to meet him and be working on curation with him. He smiled and just said “well, I’m just a man like you. Someday you might be in my shoes and someone could be nervous talking to you but you’ll still just be a man”. It put things into perspective which I’m sure he’d gotten used to by that point. Bill at the Ivar’s Salmon House. I should note that over the years I’d never actually carved with him but I had learned a great deal second hand from Steve and my late great Uncle Jerry techniques in tool making and process that are part of my life to this day. I was honored to be commissioned to do two painted murals for Camp Norwester at his persistence to have me do. His aim was to have Coast Salish representation from a Coast Salish artist and I was happy to spend time with him and his wife Marty on that island with my son. Norwester Wolves in progress (still from time-lapse) After working on the mural I was asked to come up and help with a canoe that was to replace one Bill had carved in the 80’s that was damaged beyond repair from a storm on the island. Given that the island was far off it was quite the experience. I should note that there, there is no amenity to the like of electricity beyond a generator so work was done purely by the light of day. There was a great reward from that experience I wouldn’t trade for the world carving alongside my mentor with my son and his as Bill would stop by and sit to visit periodically and socialize. Looking back on many things he shared with me I’m mostly moved by his openness and honesty of feeling he didn’t know it all. On one trip I took a walk with him and shared my frustration about losing out on grants because I didn’t fit in the categories of traditional vs contemporary. He shared how despite his successful career he’d been questioned by scholars for his efforts that didn’t fit their narrative which brings me to the first time I heard about him in a negative light early on. There were a handful of people I met early on who talked down written word about Native art with the belief that one can’t learn culture or art from a book. I later realized that most of that came from a perception that his success stemmed from a book that simply brought attention to and value to Northwest Coast Native art as a window into a universe unto itself. Never did I feel his writings were a way to tell people how to ‘be Indian’ as some had claimed. I would love this image remixed by someone integrating Alf with Bill at the center. I’m including this Stan Lee image I love because it is analogous and conveys the depth of this loss in our Northwest Coast art practice and culture. Bill didn’t invent Native art just as Stan Lee didn’t invent storytelling or comic books. It was the power of persistence and dedication that eventually scratched the surface for people to appreciate and value for what would have otherwise been shrugged off as unsophisticated. To further the analogy Lee was not alone in establishing a base line and with Holm to say the least Bill Reid (Haida) was a driving force as well as Mungo Martin (Kwakwaka’wakw). Bill seldom seemed challenged by much of anything and kept his determination and independence. Sitting with him I often admired his cane he had carved himself and asked about it once and he said, he knew he' was going to need it and that was truly in spirit of the art tradition of what Tsa- qwa-supp called utilitarian. Form and function meeting with art beautifully matched. Back to why I’ve included this photo. I imagine the vast knowledge he retained visually about the nuances of the art styles he admired and supported. He was vigilant about education in pressing how diverse Native culture was and remained into a future where it wasn’t static or confined. His work was opening the eyes to some who would not see it otherwise and waking up heroes the like of Joe David, Tsa-qwa-supp, Robert Davidson, Calvin Hunt and so many others. In this snapshot of time I have felt like I was able to be a hero of a bigger picture. Bill pressed me to write about my perspective which I never felt was all that informed having not come from a formal education yet it dawned on me how I was trained in a sense by a non-systemic form of learning by practice amongst Indigenous means that had never been truly broken despite laws that outlawed it for a time. One of my beloved elders noted Bill as a thread that was necessary to keep the line in tact where it would weave back strong and that the creator needed them for this purpose. As I grew confidence in writing and public speaking I pressed Bill back for a quote regarding the impact that his Analysis of Form had on misleading people to feel Northwest Coast Native art was a formula and to some the only way to practice art that was valid and true. After many visits where I would share my presentations on my laptop at his house, looking back I know how much pressure that would be but he gave me a quote he said he was comfortable with regarding the issue. “Had I known Analysis of Form would have been used as a ‘how to do Indian Art’ book, I would have been much clearer about it’s intent and culture groups that it covered” - Bill Holm 2006. I did a few talks where he was in the front row when put that up on the screen to quote him and I’d ask if I got it right. He’d nod and sometimes say ‘pretty much’ which got good laughs. What I can say and not say enough is how humble he was and how inspiring and infectious his curiosity was and never wavered. He never struck me as someone to hold back knowledge for any sense of power or superiority and if nothing else it was quite the opposite. He could be stubborn about methods of work for sure but if you walked him through the methodology of it he wouldn’t come back to it. Which gave me a powerful revelation about a mentor who is truly about the art and moving it forward. Burke Museum event. Photo by Jack Storm. When I was truly terrified to speak Bill was a wave pushing me forward and lifting me up. He never worked against me as an ego but all giving and transparent. Our culture here is moved and shaped by the water. There are nuances by which one can only understand by way of doing or experiencing as oral histories go and the act of creating such has been since time immemorial. I never felt Bill was in his journey with a goal to have a Native name which he has many, or fame and fortune which the art world is not why the majority of us find ourselves wading in the water. In 2010 I made a print I called “Ember” for his 85th birthday. The notion was to signify someone who carries the light forward. When I showed him he noted that it looked not only Northern but very Tlingit. I know he wasn’t being mean in any way but once more encouraging me to find my own way of expression rather than cater to influences for sake of validation. So when years later I made North and South he was happier about the composition and it’s meaning. It’s a design that would be used for the Burke Museum and later a piece that would be made in a mixed media work that would be part of the permanent collection. What leaves the story on my side somewhat open ended is what I could design that captures the idea of what he’s made possible and it may be a carving, it may be a painting or something animated. Whatever that might be I’m saddened by his absence for now but I will surely never let it leave me because when someone truly impacts your life it stays with you forever. Bill wrote articulate observations of an art that took generations to build that was nearly overwritten but like a swell builds momentum so much energy transcended that into the hands of a generation rising. Someone once noted a concept that particular forms were the most ‘evolved’ and it referenced a stylistic group. I re-read the book “Indian Art of the Northwest Coast: A Dialogue on Craftsmanship and Aesthetics” that was based on conversations between Bill Holm and Bill Reid the past two days where artist seldom look beyond the pictures which I am guilty of. When talking about a Coast Salish Spindle whorl Holm defended Coast Salish art by pointing out it’s function from the culture it comes from where one cannot judge another culture by direct comparison. Proximity alone does not equate similarity. However, he noted always to me the importance of positive and negative and the relationship of similarities of the old traditions and not to dig into the weeds here that will be for another post of which I’m motivated to venture. I normally tie up my posts with a song link but given the uniqueness of this situation there are too many and ones that do not have ties to public sharing or links. Even so I can say I know they are many and ones that come to mind stem from not Coast Salish alone but Kwakwala language, Nuu-chah-nulth, and Haida origins. This is only my view in remembrance. What I can say is whether his energy was a spark that carried fire, a pebble that created a wave or sound that travelled through the air it’s an energy that touched the lives of many. In my small world it was a wave that carried me forward and I am forever grateful.