TOWARDS AN ART HISTORY OF NORTHWEST COAST : A Review Essay of Recent Literature

IRA JACKNIS

Spirits of the Water: Native Art Collected on Expeditions to Alaska and , 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: 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 , 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. KopytofFs (1986) notion of a "cultural As is well known to scholars in the biography of things," as objects were field, the earliest collections from redefined from souvenir to curio to Aboriginal areas were colonial creations ethnographic specimen to art object as and thus do not reside in their home­ the artefact travelled from owner to lands but, rather, in the imperial owner (xi-xiv). métropoles. As an emblematic case All the objects reviewed by Molloy study, Malloy begins with the group were gathered before anthropologists of about a dozen famous Haida por­ began systematically collecting around trait masks, made around 1820, most 1875. "Ethnographic incunabula," they of which now survive in these New are the earliest Northwest Coast arte­ facts in the United States. In fact, they 1 Salem East India Marine Society, Massa­ are often the earliest of their type in chusetts Historical Society, Dartmouth any museum collection (these include College Museum, Deerfield Academy Museum, Boston Athenaeum, American the earliest extant examples of Haida Antiquarian Society, Boston Marine argillite carving). Well researched, this Society, Boston Museum, Peabody Museum valuable book demonstrates how far of American Archaeology and Ethnology we have come since Erna Gunther's (which received the four previous col­ pioneering, but often erroneous, efforts. lections), and Newburyport Marine Society- On the whole, the photographic illus­ Historical Society of Old Newbury- Newburyport Maritime Society. Only the tration is sparing, with fifty (out of Salem museum still maintains its col­ 241) objects in black and white (some lections, although with a name change (it in multiple views) and fourteen in is now the Peabody Essex Museum). colour. Because of its detailed, item- Towards an Art History 181 by-item record, Souvenirs of the Fur based, McLennan and Duffek have Trade will be of interest more to used these modern methods to make specialists than to a general scholarly available for the first time many or popular audience, although the paintings that were "hiding in plain introductory chapters can be read with sight." profit by all with an interest in the After the introduction, Transforming period. Image is divided into chapters that deal Of all the aspects of Northwest with the Image Recovery Project, the Coast Aboriginal arts, perhaps painting antiquity of painting styles, the social has been the subject that has received context and uses of painted objects, the the greatest attention — from the painter's tool kit, iconography and original studies by Franz Boas to the meaning, regional styles, individual system of "formline" design analyzed styles, and, finally, a look at twentieth- by Bill Holm (1965). Again, two of the century styles. A photographic appendix books reviewed here may be paired: is devoted to chest-end motifs, illus­ McLennan and Duffek's Transforming trating the fourth end, which was left Image and Malin's Northwest Coast out of earlier sets of front, back, and Indian Painting. Both contribute to an one side. As the authors admit, their Aboriginal art history by attending to focus is on northern styles (e.g., specific, dated, and localized examples , Haida, and ) and found in museum specimens and such central coast styles as historic photographs. and . Partly for technical reasons Transforming Image is a real classic, - such as the fact that infrared film is without doubt the most significant of unsuitable for the later commercial the books under review. McLennan paints found on many southern objects and Duffek are both associated with in museums - they do not attempt a the UBC Museum of Anthropology as full treatment of the more southern projects manager/curator and curator styles of the Kwakwaka'wakw, Nuu- of art, respectively. Since 1980 Bill chah-nulth, and Coast Salish. Unfor­ McLennan has been working on what tunately, these styles were also neglected he calls the Image Recovery Project. by Boas and Holm. Admittedly, these Because Northwest Coast artefacts are styles are less formalized and show so often coated in dirt, smoke, grease, more individual variation than do the and grime, their designs have been northern and central styles, but until literally obscured. McLennan has they get the scholarly treatment they photographed these with infrared film, deserve we can be grateful for the which, because of its differential analysis provided by McLennan and sensitivity to light rays, is capable of Duffek. registering design elements that are By bringing to light a much larger not apparent to the naked eye or on sample of artistic creations, McLennan regular film. Another innovative and Duffek reveal that there was much technique is the computer-assisted more diversity and complexity in these manipulation of historical photographs. painting styles than has long been Finally, working with Haisla Lyle thought. For instance, by comparing Wilson and other First Nations artists, all sides of a box, with details made older designs have been recreated in visible by infrared images, we see that contemporary reconstructions. In this Northwest Coast painting is not book, and the exhibit upon which it is nearly as bilaterally symmetrical as it l82 BC STUDIES

has been described and, thus, is less largely supersedes Malin's Northwest dependent on the use of templates for Coast Indian Painting, the latter con­ its production. Some of the house tains important information that the front recreations, particularly the former does not. Malin, an anthro­ Tsimshian ones, are breathtaking in pologist and author of two previous their monumental detail, going far books on Northwest Coast masks beyond most of the smaller objects (1978) and totem poles (1986), was a that have survived in museums. The student of Tlingit specialist Frederica painstaking acts of recreation on the de Laguna, herself a Boas student. part of the UBC team are tantamount Although Malin first conceived the to the completion of an unfinished study in 1949, the book is the product symphony from fragmentary sketches. of six years of effort that took place in While it may not be an exact replica the 1990s. Northwest Coast Indian of a historical creation, it may well Painting has significant limitations capture some of its aesthetic power for with regard to its subject. As is indi­ audiences in the present. cated by the subtitle, it is based on a Many years in preparation, this corpus of 188 house fronts and interior attractive book has a particularly screens, in contrast to McLennan and elegant design, with a long, horizontal Duffek's more inclusive volume, which format especially suited for repro­ features boxes as well as facades. After ducing house frontal paintings and for an introductory chapter entitled presenting the helpful series of matched "Native Cultures and the Painting sets showing all four sides of a box. Tradition," and a chapter on the social The book is lavishly illustrated with context of that tradition, Malin reviews colour, black-and-white, and infrared the paintings in the northern style photographs, usefully integrated on (Tlingit, Tsimshian, Haida) and the the same or facing pages along with southern style (Bella Coola, Northern the relevant text. Beyond the specific Kwakiutl, Southern Kwakiutl, Nuu- contributions of its text, Transforming chah-nulth, Coast Salish). Next comes Image is important because it allows a summary of the general charac­ access to this rich archive of images. teristics of Northwest Coast painting First, like cleaning and other conser­ (largely derived from Boas and Holm) vation treatments, the infrared photo­ and a chapter on individual artists and graphs make the paintings more their practice. The brief concluding visible. Yet, like all photography, the chapter, which is more like an epi­ Image Recovery Project is able to logue, on the recent revival in painting collect widely dispersed examples into is not a very adequate treatment of this a convenient, consultable corpus for important subject. analysis, for scholars, and, even more Following the text are two extensive important, for Aboriginal artists (a sections of illustrations: fifty-seven of kind of "visual repatriation"). There is Malin's coloured drawings of specific not enough space here to treat the paintings and fifty-three mostly black- book's many important contributions, and-white historic photographs. The which scholars will be digesting and paintings and drawings are like those debating for many years to come. by the First Nations artists working The two books about painting at UBC in that they are reconstructions: overlap, and, while McLennan and they clarify the details of the designs Duffek's The Transforming Image not fully apparent in photographs and Towards an Art Mis tory 183 render them in colour. Unlike these tionally limited to men. Since Coast UBC examples, however, they are some­ Salish art has not received as much what impressionistic, not as precise as scholarly or public attention as has the those that Wilson and others made more northerly Northwest Coast styles, from direct tracings. One of the book's this new study is especially welcome. key features, however, is its collection Susan Point was edited by Gary of historic photos, printed on large- Wyatt, "curator" at Vancouver's Spirit format glossy paper. Since most of Wrestler Gallery, with contributions these monumental paintings no longer by Michael Kew, Peter Macnair, Vesta exist, the images will prove useful to Giles, and Bill McLennan. The two all concerned with the subject. The introductory essays by anthropologists book is conveniently organized by Michael Kew (on traditional Coast nation and locality. Perhaps its greatest Salish art) and Peter Macnair (with a strength is its treatment of Tlingit biographical and artistic review) are painting and, secondarily, its complete excellent. Among Kew's more im­ coverage of southern styles. Although portant points is his consideration of McLennan and Duffek do include the the "constraints" on Salish artistic Tlingit of Alaska, they do not em­ creativity, which takes up a notion put phasize them as much as does Malin, forward by Salish specialist Wayne who has personal experience in the Suttles (1984). There are good cultural area. In fact, Malin's sample of 188 reasons why Salish produce less "art" paintings includes 35 examples of than do other groups and share less of Tlingit monumental paintings, in­ it with non-Aboriginals when they do. cluding 28 interior screens (27), the Macnair's account, based on an inti­ most from any group. Malin's in­ mate knowledge of Point's oeuvre and corporation of his own fieldwork with illustrated with black-and-white the Tlingit will be his greatest contri­ photos of her previous work, is an bution to the writing of an art history illuminating treatment of her inno­ of the region. vative practice. Included at the end is Of the several scholarly genres a useful chronology summarizing reviewed here, perhaps the most Point's exhibitions, commissions, ap­ directly art historical is the artist pointments, and awards (1981-2000). monograph. Pioneered for Northwest The bulk of this volume, like the Coast artists by Bill Holm's (1983) Spanish catalogue, features specific work on Kwakwaka'wakw carver objects. Each of the forty-four pieces , such treatments have comes with a full-page colour photo­ now been devoted to Haida masters graph and a commentary from the (Shadbolt 1998; DufTek 1986) artist recorded by Giles and McLennan. and Robert Davidson (Stewart 1979; It is wonderful to have this direct testi­ Thorn 1993) as well as to the related mony from the artist on the concerns Kwakwaka'wakw artists Charlie James, that motivated her in the creation of , and (Nuytten each work. 1982). Susan Point, an important con­ On the other hand, one must note temporary Coast Salish artist, has that the book is not the scholarly treat­ created innovations in modern media ment that it could have been. Like such as glass, bronze, and architectural most art gallery publications, it features decoration. She is also one of the current work. Each featured piece was female path-breakers in a field tradi­ made between 1998 and 2000 (most in 184 BC STUDIES the latter year), and, one assumes, were makers and users of such objects available for purchase. Wyatt lauds persist in regarding them as cultural this expansive opportunity to consider patrimony and ceremonial prero­ such a large body of an artist's work gatives (both family and individual). (7); however, while it may be lavish, it Thus an art history of Northwest is more or less standard practice for Coast First Nations, fine as it may be, art galleries. Museums, with their will never be able to answer all the long-term perspective, more often questions that we may ask of these attempt full-career retrospectives. beautiful and fascinating objects. Despite Macnair's fine essay, this book is not that comprehensive. Point is still in mid-career, having been born in REFERENCES 1952 and begun her career in the early Black, Martha. 1997. Bella Bella: A 1980s, and consequently this volume Season of Heiltsuk Art. Toronto/ is devoted very much to "work in Vancouver/Seattle: Royal Ontario progress." Still, Susan Point is an im­ Museum/Douglas and Mclntyre/ portant contemporary BC artist, and University of Washington Press. the illustrations are fine represen­ tations of her current work. Brown, Steven C. 1998. Native Visions: Evolution in Northwest Coast Art This is an exciting time for the from the Eighteenth Century through study of First Nations arts of British the Twentieth Century. Seattle: The Columbia. Scholars have built upon Seattle Art Museum in association the basic descriptions and collections with Douglas and Mclntyre (Van­ of earlier generations of anthro­ couver) . pologists but have gone far beyond them in considering the nuances of Bruner, Edward M. 1986. Ethno­ artistic practice in the region. In fact, graphy as Narrative. In The Anthro­ one of the healthiest trends, embodied pology of Experience, ed. Victor W. in McLennan and Duffek, is the Turner and Edward M. Bruner, 139- constant reminder of the inherent 55. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois ambiguity in the art and the emphasis Press. on how much we shall never know. At Cole, Douglas. 1985. Captured Heritage: the same time, one must note the The Scramble for Northwest Coast many mediocre books that are pro­ Artifacts. Vancouver/Seattle: UBC duced, stimulated by a vast commercial Press/University of Washington infrastructure of museums, galleries, Press. dealers, and publishers. Duff, Wilson. 1965. The Impact of the While some of the books reviewed White Man. Vol. 1: The Indian here attest to the institutionalization History of British Columbia. Victoria: of Northwest Coast Aboriginal arts British Columbia Provincial Museum. within a Western discourse of art Duffek, Karen. 1986. BillReid:Beyond history, we should also remember that the Essential Form. Vancouver: UBC these arts derive from a distinctive Museum of Anthropology. culture and that, in many cases, they Gunther, Erna. 1972. Indian Life on the may not even be art at all (cf. Jacknis Northwest Coast of North America, as 2002:205-6). Although living in a Seen by the Early Explorers and Fur multicultural world, many of the Traders during the Last Decades of the Towards an Art History 185

Eighteenth Century. Chicago: Uni­ Cook and Acquired through Sir Joseph versity of Chicago Press. Banks. London: The British Museum. Holm, Bill. 1965. Northwest Coast Kopytoff, Igor. 1986. The Cultural Indian Art: An Analysis of Form. Biography of Things: Commod- Seattle: University of Washington itization as Process. In The Social Life Press. of Things: Commodities in Cultural . 1983. Smoky Top: The Art and Perspective, ed. Arjun Appadurai, Times of Willie Seaweed. Seattle/ 64-91. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Vancouver: University of Washington University Press. Press/Douglas and Mclntyre. Malin, Edward. 1978.^ World of Faces: Jacknis, Ira. 1992. "The Artist Him­ Masks of the Northwest Coast Indians. self": The Salish Basketry Mono­ Portland, OR: Timber. graph and the Beginnings of a . 1986. Totem Poles of the Pacific Boasian Paradigm. In The Early Northwest Coast. Portland, OR: Years of Native American Art History: Timber. Essays on the Politics of Scholarship Nuytten, Phil. 1982. The Totem Carvers: and Collecting, ed. Janet C. Berlo, 134- Charlie James, Ellen Neel, andMungo 61. Seattle: University of Washington Martin. Vancouver: Panorama Pub­ Press. lications. . 2002. The Storage Box of Tra­ Shadbolt, Doris. 1998 [1986]. BillReid. dition: KwakiutlArt, Anthropologists, 2nd ed. Vancouver: Douglas and and Museums, 1881—1981. Washington, Mclntyre. DC: Smithsonian Institution Press. Stewart, Hilary. 1979. Robert Davidson: Jonaitis, Aldona. 1988. From the Land Haida Printmaker. Vancouver: Douglas of the Totem Poles: The Northwest and Mclntyre. Coast Indian Art Collection at the Suttles, Wayne. 1984. Productivity and American Museum of Natural His­ Its Constraints: A Coast Salish Case. tory. New York/Seattle: American In Coast Salish Essays, ed. Wayne Museum of Natural History/Uni­ Suttles, 100-36. Vancouver: Talon. versity of Washington Press. Thorn, Ian, ed. 1993. Robert Davidson: . ed. 1995. A Wealth of Thought: Eagle of the Dawn. Vancouver: Franz Boas on Native American Art. Douglas and Mclntyre, in asso­ Seattle: University of Washington ciation with the Vancouver Art Press. Gallery. King, Jonathan C.H. 1981. Artificial Wright, Robin K. 2001. Northern Curiosities from the Northwest Coast Haida Master Carvers. Seattle/ of America: Native American Arte­ Vancouver: University of Washington facts in the British Museum Collected Press/Douglas and Mclntyre. on the Third Voyage of Captain James