Northwest Coast Indian Art: An Analysis of Form, 50th Anniversary Edition

145 Pages·2014·62.1 MB·English

by  Bill Holm

Northwest
Coast
Indian
Art
AN ANALYSIS OF FORM
Native Art of the Pacific Northwest
A Bill Holm Center Series
The mission of this publication series is to foster appreciation
and understanding of Pacific Northwest Native art and culture.
In the Spirit of the Ancestors: Contemporary Northwest Coast
Art at the Burke Museum, edited by Robin K. Wright and
Kathryn Bunn-Marcuse
Return to the Land of the Head Hunters: Edward S. Curtis,
the Kwa kwaka’wakw, and the Making of Modern Cinema,
edited by Brad Evans and Aaron Glass
Northwest Coast Indian Art: An Analysis of Form,
50th Anniversary Edition, by Bill Holm
Northwest
Coast
Indian
Art
AN ANALYSIS OF FORM
50th Anniversary Edition
Bill Holm
Bill Holm Center for the
Study of Northwest Coast Art
Burke Museum, Seattle
in association with
University of Washington Press
Seattle and London
© 1965 by the University of Washington Press
50th Anniversary Edition © 2015 by the University of Washington Press
Printed and bound in the United States of America
Design by Thomas Eykemans
Composed in Chaparral, typeface designed by Carol Twombly
18 17 16 15 5 4 3 2 1
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmit-
ted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy,
recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in
writing from the publisher.
Bill Holm Center for the Study of Northwest Coast Art
Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture
www.burkemuseum.org/bhc
University of Washington Press
www.washington.edu/uwpress
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is on file
ISBN 978-0-295-99427-7
The paper used in this publication is acid-free and meets the minimum require-
ments of American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of
Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48–1984. ∞
List of Illustrations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vii
Contents List of Collections Consulted . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . x
Foreword
Robin K. Wright and Kathryn Bunn-Marcuse . . . . . . . . . . . . xi
Artists’ Reflections
Evelyn Vanderhoop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xv
Joe David . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xviii
Nathan Jackson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xix
Robert Davidson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xix
Preface to the 50th Anniversary Edition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xxi
Preface to the Original Edition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xxv
Historical Background . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Symbolism and Realism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Uses of Two-Dimensional Art . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Elements of the Art . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Principles of Form and Organization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
Appendix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109

Map
Tribes of the Northwest Coast . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
illustrations
Figures
“Corrected” cover image of the paperback version
of Northwest Coast Indian Art . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xxi
1 The Raven Screens of the Huna, Tlingit . . . . . . . . . xxiv
2 Argillite chest, Haida . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xxvi
3 Fragment of painted coffin, Bella Bella . . . . . . . . . . xxvii
4 Carved wooden bowl (Dixon’s bowl), Haida . . . . . . . . . 4
5 Woven blanket, Chilkat . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
6 Woven spruce root hat, Haida . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
7 Woven spruce root hat, Haida . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
8 Woven spruce root hat, Tlingit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
9 Wooden model of seagoing canoe, Haida . . . . . . . . . 14
10 Silver bracelets, Haida . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
11 Designs “unwrapped” from spoon handles . . . . . . . . 16
12 Wooden club, Tlingit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
13 Wooden bowl, Haida . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
14 Round rattle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
15 Carved and painted box, Haida . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
16 Argillite platter, Haida . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
17 Face masks: Tlingit, Bella Coola, Kwakiutl . . . . . . . . . 24
18 Model totem pole, Haida . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
19 Painting from a spruce root mat, Haida . . . . . . . . . . 27
20 Painted wooden spoon, Stikine Tlingit . . . . . . . . . . . 27
21 The three classes of design elements . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
22 Tracings of ovoid templates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
23 “Salmon-trout’s-head” elaboration of inner ovoids . . . . 32
24 Inner ovoid elaborations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
25 Totem pole detail, Haida . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
26 Painted skin kilt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
27 Whale mask, Kwakiutl . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
28 Firm and soft ovoids and eyelids . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
29 Tracings of eyelid and U templates . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
30 Primary U enclosing tertiary U
and secondary double U . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
31 Eye U and split U . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
vii
32 U complexes with semiangular and soft curves;
split U with outline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
33 Tertiary S enclosed by primary
and secondary complexes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
34 Tertiary L enclosing secondary double U’s . . . . . . . . . 44
35 Stylized face with eyebrow; rounded, angular,
and humped eyebrows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
36 Detail of typical face design from painted box . . . . . . . 46
37 Carved wooden grease dish, Haida . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
38 Detail of long eye socket or “double-eye” form . . . . . . 48
39 Construction of typical “salmon-trout’s-head”
inner ovoid . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
40 Painted design on coffin, Haida . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
41 Cheek design variations, Type 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
42A Cheek design variations, Type 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
42B Cheek design variations, Type 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
43 Cheek design variations, long “double-eye” type . . . . . 53
44 Human hands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
45 Feet of various mammals and birds . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
46 Detail of wooden helmet, Tlingit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
47 Box design illustrating two methods
of joining adjacent ovoids and U’s . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
48 Detail of painted box design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
49 Painted square box . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
50 Development of eye design with templates . . . . . . . . 61
51 Relief of heavy areas of color . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
52 Carved dish, spoon, and bracelet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
53 Coffin front from mortuary pole, Haida . . . . . . . . . . 64
54 Painted design on the end of a chest, Haida . . . . . . . . 65
55 Four sides of a chest, Massett Haida . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
56 Large carved bent-corner dish, Skidegate Haida . . . . . 70
57 Carved and painted settee, Haida . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
58 Engraved silver bracelet, Haida . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
59 Relation of total organization
to individual design units . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
60 Four sides of a square box, Massett Haida . . . . . . . . . 77
61 Carved and painted chest, Tlingit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
62 Designs from the sides of square boxes . . . . . . . . . . 79
63 Details of two raven rattles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
64 Woolen appliqué shirt, Haida . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
viii illustrations
65 Silver bracelet by Edensaw, Haida . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
66 Recent silver bracelet, Haida . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
67 Interior of Whale House, Klukwan . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
68 Carved and painted canoe paddle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
69 Section of chief’s staff, Haida . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
70 Mountain sheep horn spoon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
71 Painted box front, Bella Bella . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
72 Painted food tray. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
73 Carved bowl of mountain sheep horn . . . . . . . . . . . 88
74 Whale tails . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
75 Silver bracelet with beaver design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
76 Sample Keysort card . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
77 Four sides of carved and painted chest, Tsimshian . . . . 97
78 Cross section of a carving . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
illustrations ix