TOWARDS an ART HISTORY of NORTHWEST COAST FIRST NATIONS: a Review Essay of Recent Literature

TOWARDS AN ART HISTORY OF NORTHWEST COAST FIRST NATIONS: A Review Essay of Recent Literature IRA JACKNIS Spirits of the Water: Native Art Collected on Expeditions to Alaska and British Columbia, 1774-1910 Steven C. Brown, editor Vancouver/Toronto: Douglas and Mclntyre; Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2000. 207 pp. Illus., $60 (US$45) paper. Souvenirs of the Fur Trade: Northwest Coast Indian Art and Artifacts Collected by American Mariners, 1788-1844 Mary Malloy Cambridge, MA. Peabody Museum of Archeology and Ethnology, Harvard University, 2000. 168 pp. Illus., US$35 paper. The Transforming Image: Painted Arts of Northwest Coast First Nations Bill McLennan and Karen Duffek Vancouver: UBC Press; Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2000. 291 pp. Illus., $80 (US$60) cloth. Northwest Coast Indian Painting: House Fronts and Interior Screens Edward Malin Portland, Oregon: Timber Press, 1999. 288 pp. Illus., US$39.95 cloth. Susan Point: Coast Salish Artist Gary Wyatt, editor Vancouver/Toronto: Douglas and Mclntyre; Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2000. 143 pp. Illus., $39.95 (US$30) paper. BC STUDIES, no. 135, Autumn 2002 IJJ 17» BCJ STUDlhS HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE on material culture. Duff was soon fol the traditional Aboriginal arts lowed by two scholars associated with Aof the Northwest Coast goes the Washington State Museum at the back to the 1890s and to the founder University of Washington, Seattle: of their study, the German-American Erna Gunther (1972), who was a anthropologist Franz Boas (cf. Jonaitis student of Boas, and then by her 1995). As with all his cultural histories, student, artist and art teacher Bill Boas considered these developments Holm (1983). The culmination of such within a long-term perspective, dealing temporal approaches may be seen in in centuries rather than years. His ulti the recent contributions of two of mate interests lay in what had deter Holm's students, the important regional mined the formation of pre-contact, review by Steven Brown (1998) and the preliterate Aboriginal cultures. In fact, more detailed study of Northern Haida as is well known, Boas was reluctant Master Carvers, by Robin Wright to deal with what resembled Euro- (2001). Canadian history (i.e., the more recent The recent historical turn in the changes that could be observed by the scholarly literature on the art of anthropologist or that were recorded Northwest Coast First Nations has in the writings of Westerners). This had several distinct yet related mani was due partly to a common belief that festations. Among the key topics have any observable change was the result been the history of collecting, formal of White contact and thus represented developments in painting and sculpture, a cultural degeneration, and partly to tourist arts and other arts made for sale a lack of training in archival research to non-Aboriginals, and the varieties skills. In his early work at least, Boas of contemporary art. Each of the five also avoided the study of individual books under review here addresses artists in favour of the analysis of pan- some of these historical themes. One cultural styles (Jacknis 1992). Because of the earliest topics to gain attention of his wide influence, for decades was ethnographic collecting, which was Boas's views came to dominate the seen as an inter-relationship between study of Native American art in general the dominant society and Aboriginal and of Northwest Coast art in parti cultures. Pioneered by Erna Gunther cular. (1972), this topic was treated most The first serious challenges to a comprehensively by cultural historian Boasian paradigm came in the 1960s Douglas Cole in Captured Heritage as anthropologists began to critically (1985) as well as by King (1981), Jonaitis consider, on the one hand, the resis (1988), and Black (1997). Appropriately, tance of First Nations to acculturative museum collections are the focus of forces and, on the other, the creative two of the books under review: the aspects of culture change (Bruner more inclusive Spirits of the Water and 1986). On the Northwest Coast, the more specific Souvenirs of the Fur anthropologist Wilson Duff (1965) - Trade. at the British Columbia Provincial Spirits of the Water, an edition trans Museum (now the Royal British lated from the Spanish, was produced Columbia Museum) and later at the to accompany an exhibition organized University of British Columbia - was by the Fundacion "la Caixa," Barcelona. one of the first scholars to apply these The editor is Steven Brown, former historical perspectives to art and curator of Native American art at the Towards an /irt History Seattle Art Museum and now an inde carvings - items that could be con pendent curator and scholar. Although strued as "art" in the Western sense. he is credited with "clarifying trans The volume's regional scope is wider lation issues" and contributing "addi than the Northwest Coast culture area tional catalogue entries," the extent of as it also includes Eskimo and other his work is unclear; many of the entries Arctic cultures of Alaska. Its coverage do seem to echo his previous writings. of these cultures, however, is rather The introductory essay by Leoncio meagre and somewhat arbitrary. With Carretero Collado on eighteenth- and few exceptions the captions speak of nineteenth-century expeditions is functional and aesthetic issues rather rather superficial. Much more useful is than of collecting (as is suggested by Paz Cabello's essay on the eighteenth- the volume's title and organization). century Spanish expeditions, which Good as far as they go, they seem to reflects the Spanish sponsorship of the be the work of Brown, bearing his in book. Neither Bill Holm's brief review sights. of the functions of the art, nor Alberto The objects chosen for illustration Costo Romero deTejada's musings on are a mixed-bag. Most are wonderful the appreciation of Eskimo and pieces, and while it is important to Northwest Coast art by European have such good photographs of them, Surrealist artists, offers much that is many have already been published, new. One gets the impression that the sometimes repeatedly (e.g., collections collections from Spain were of more from the Harvard Peabody Museum). interest to the organizers than those The opposite situation is presented by from other countries. Not only are the many pieces from private - and they highlighted in the introduction some anonymous - collections. While but, conversely, many of the important a visual representation of these pieces later North American expeditions are is preferable to having no public omitted. Perhaps it would have made knowledge of them, they are not very sense to focus on the earlier expedi accessible to scholars. Compared to tionary collections, before the large- the existing literature, this catalogue scale collecting by anthropologists in does not have much of a focus; nor the later nineteenth and early twentieth does it offer much information that is centuries. new to scholarship. Its primary virtues The bulk of the volume is devoted are its set of attractive photographs, to four illustrated sections on the especially of the earlier collections respective national expeditions: Spanish from Spain and Russia, and of some (1774-92), English (1778), Russian fine pieces in private collections. (1778-1890), and North American Souvenirs of the Fur Trade deals with (1867-1910). As suggested by the single some of the material results of the 175 date, the only English expedition is New England voyages to the Northwest Captain Cook's third voyage. Approxi Coast between 1788 and 1844. Author mately 175 items are illustrated, each Mary Malloy, who teaches maritime with a colour plate, from public and studies at the Sea Education Asso private collections. While most are ciation in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, Aboriginal objects, several illustrations has long been researching this subject. made by expeditionary artists are also The first part of this book consists of included. The book places a heavy em two chapters: "Yankee Observations of phasis on masks and other ceremonial Northwest Coast Indian Life" and i8o BC STUDIES "Souvenirs and Scientific Collecting." England institutions. Noting that The second half, comprising the bulk most include the labret lip plug worn of the volume (about ioo pages), is, in by noblewomen, she speculates that the author's words: "The first attempt this "bizarre" ornament stimulated the to create a comprehensive catalogue of curiosity of visiting sailors. This leads all of the Northwest Coast Indian to a good discussion of the various artifacts that entered into those insti motivations for collecting. As these tutions while the maritime fur trade merchant collectors were primarily in was active" (59). Ten chapters are the business of trading sea otter pelts, devoted to the original museum col such items had potential as commodities lections.1 Unlike many museum scholars, in a regular trade. In some cases they Malloy starts from the documentation were early examples of tourist art; in of collections and not the surviving fact, production for sale to outsiders objects. One justification for her had begun as early as 1815 (xv). In approach is the fact that, even if some addition to their function as personal of these artefacts no longer exist or souvenirs, some of these objects were cannot be found, one can still consider gathered as early natural history the activities of their early collectors. specimens from foreign lands. In con As each museum section is prefaced sidering the nature of the interaction by a summary of the institution and between buyer and seller, Molloy its Northwest Coast collections, the concludes that, in most cases, the volume also offers insights into the decision to sell was made by North early history of New England museums, west Coast Aboriginal peoples (xv). most of which no longer exist as The book is a fine illustration of separate institutions.

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