For background, pay a virtual visit to the Grand Hall of the Canadian Museum of Civilization in Ottawa. There you will see replica housefronts and totem poles of four Canadian people in this cultural area. Click on the housefronts for more information about the houses and people, and on the links below for a variety of other information. Notice the painted decorations, the carvings, the design that goes into the Haida "button blanket." (It is related to the Chilkat blankets of Alaska.) For more background on the Northwest Coast cultures, you can read this University of Washington overview of the Tlingit and related peoples of Alaska and British Columbia. It will tell you how climate and geography affected the culture Be sure to click through to the pictures of totem poles (one is mislabeled, it shows you a man and a dog, but the others show a remarkable art form). Pay special attention to sections on housing and the matriarchal clan system.
Then visit the the website for Totem Poles: An Appreciation by Canadian author Pat Kramer. She's plugging a book, but she has a good explanation of what totem poles are, and what they mean. Some good thumbnails, too. Totem poles are still being carved. For links to several Alaskan and Canadian artists doing totem poles todaygo to the Native Languages website. The website (one of the best on Native American subjects) advises, "If you're looking for something less expensive, why not visit our Native American sculptures page instead, where there are some nice collections of beautiful Indian woodcarving ..." Good advice. Let's go there and see what we find.
But first a tangent, an important one: Are you getting a good feel for how important a traditional art form woodworking is for the First Nations of the Northwest Coast? Good. In that case you're ready to read this from the report of the superintendent of the Siletz Indian Agency in Oregon on Aug. 28, 1882. He was especially proud of a new sawmill:
... The labor in the mills is all performed by Indians with a single exception. I am pleased to say that a number of Indians, so far as I know for the first time, cut their timber, drew their logs, and sawed their own lumber without the aid of government, thus proving themselves on the road to self-support and independence, a thing of which they feel a pride.He added:
The Indians here I find are not very unlike white people; some are willing to labor for what they have and others think they ought to be supported in their idleness. ... The Indians here as a rule learn the trades easily, perhaps more readily even than farming. There are goodly numbers who can perform service in the shops or mills, and show evidence of rapid advancement in mechanism.No wonder! They'd been building cedar plank houses and working with wood for centuries.
In the 21st century, the art of the Northwest Coast peoples is still alive. Visit the Coghlan Studio and Gallery near Vancouver, B.C., for a highly commercial but culturally aware approach to the art. Be sure to read the history of carving and other arts, the essay on raising a new totem pole at the Royal Museum Of British Columbia in Victoria. But most Northwest Coast art now is smaller, and it branches out into other media. Surf around the Coughlan Gallery's website, visit the gift shop and the gallery to see more. Click on the thumbnails to see larger pictures of the art, or to read artist's biographies. How much are the artists charging? (Prices that say "$ ... cdn" are Canadian, and "$ ... usd" are U.S. dollars. But you would have figured that out anyway.) Think about it, review what you've read and answer this question: How have Native American artists of the Northwest Coast adapted their traditional art forms to a market economy? What strikes you most about their art? What in your background and/or taste makes you feel that way? What specific features in the design and execution of the art speak to you across cultures? What suprises you about it? Post your answers as comments to this blogpost.
10 comments:
The art has been adapted to a market economy by adding a price tag. The art itself is mostly traditional, but now they realize it has more than its intrinsic value. People are willing to pay outrageous amounts for something that strikes their fancy.
The art that is very basic and tribal doesn’t particularly interest me. The paintings by Garry Meeches and Donald Peters are of great interest to me. They are very subtle and candid. It feels like I could walk out into the great forests of America and find a man on horseback or a bird in a tree. They are very realistic without being too sharp. The images are very soft and inviting. I love this type of art! I enjoy being out in the woods and camping. This type of imagery reaches me. It doesn’t surprise me that totems, carvings, and paintings are still done today. Art is as much a part of someone as an eye or hand. It’s just who they, and it will come out just as surely as the sun every morning. Art and music are part of any culture, and it developed for a reason. People must have some type of artistic release.
Native American artists adapted their traditional art forms to a market economy by just adapting like everyone else has. They have put some totem poles in museums to be viewed and most likely at parks. What strikes me most about their art is that they use a lot of wood and decorate it vastly. The go into great lengths in detail. I like the designs they put on everything and just keep a basic color, and ive always had interest in the wood carvings of totem poles. Some of the features that i notice that speaks across culture is how some of the designs are similar, and in also the use of the animals. The only thing that suprises me is how tall some of them got.
1. All the workers are indians whom do all of their work on their own, and then attempt to seel their creations. These creations consist of paintings, carvings, or sculptures.
2. Their art except for Ozz F.'s work is pretty basic shapes with basic color, the masks show some form of emotion and their paintings all seem to represent some life form. Personally I like the Ozz guys work because his paintings look more life like and mystical. What surprises me is how the artist transcends an individual life-like indian in with a heavenily setting.
It has been adapted by adding a price tag. They understood it was worth more value too because people are willing to pay. The art is very simple, but it does not appeal to me at all. The painting that i liked was by Donald Peters. The image is very soft, and real.
1) They adapted them by seellng things such as fur, something that was really in high demands.
2)I like how the art is so in tuned with the indian culture and it reflects things such as their religion.
3) In the African-American culture we have a lot of art that reflects our religion to such as African goddesses in fact i have a lot of pictures of african goddesses in my own home.
4) I really like the wooden carvings espescially the totem poles.
5) The thing that suprises me the most about the Native American carvings is how life-like they look.
Northwest coast artists have begun to make smaller versions of the real totem poles in order to sell them within our economy. The pricetag that has been added to these forms of art reflect how important these art forms are to their culutres. They have also just done sculptures of their totem poles and artwork in order to mass produce them for the economy. Their art strikes me as very different. The figures do not seem even close to being life-like. It is almost like they are depicting animated animals and humans in their totem poles and other art. When I look at art, I like to see how real or life-like a person can make their art. I think that the more life-like the artwork, the more interested I am. The time and effort that goes into these great pieces of artwork really stands out. We can tell that the totem poles were not just created in one day. They take a massive amount of time and planning in order for them to be completed.
1. The use alot of basic shapes and like to stay traditional in their creations.They also like to preserve their creations.
2.Alot of their designs are similiar from artist to artist. Most of the imagery depicts things that are normal and important to their culture
The Native American artist adapted their tradition from adding a tag to the market place economy. Their art was something people paid outrageous prices for. The art that they were selling was a basic type which was something I would not spend my money on. There art is very relistic like a forests and birds flying, but they are not as sharp as some paintings you may see other artists do. The totems that that the natives done are very tall which suprised me how they would make them so big. Which what most people don't think of is that still today there are wood carvings and totems painted. Which not all of thier painting that they did that I disliked, but there where some that were soft and inviting to look at.
They use basic shapes and they stay traditional in their creations. They like to preserve their creations as well, just like their traditions.
2. Alot of their designs are similiar from artist to artist. Most of the imagery depicts things that are normal and important to their culture. They use the values they were taught and express it in their art.
All or most of the workers on these particular art forms were Native Americans and later would try to sell items such as painting, carvings, and sculptures
what strikes me about their art is all the vast variety of colors and symbols they used in not only paints but also in all the creations that they did with wood. and that was another thing that caught me eye was how talented the were in their wood carving.the most suprising thing to me about the Native American art is how realistic and life like the wood carving looked I really enjoyed all of the art from them, but probaly the wood carving stood out the most to me
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