In the Shadow of the Sun: Perspectives on Contemporary Native Art

553 Pages·1993·236.529 MB·English

by  Canadian Museum of Civilization

In the Shadow
of the Sun
Perspectives on Contemporary
Native Art
Edited by
T he C a n a d i an M u s e um
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
Canadian Ethnology Service
Mercury Series Paper 124
Canadian Museum of Civilization
© Canadian Museum of Civilization 1993
OBJECT OF THE MERCURY SERIES
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Main entry under title: the rapid dissemination of information
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In the shadow of the sun: perspectives on Canadian Museum of Civilization is active.
contemporary native art Considered an important reference by the
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Includes an abstract in French. prehistory.
Translation of most of the essays included Because of its specialized audience, the
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Schatten der Sonne: Zeitgenossische Kunst der lished in the language of the author.
Indianer und Eskimos in Kanada (edited by
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iii
ABSTRACT
This volume makes available in English most of the essays written to
accompany the Canadian Museum of Civilization's exhibition In the Shadow
of the Sun. Not included from the original German publication, Im Schatten der
Sonne: Zeitgenossische Kunst der Indianer und Eskimos in Kanada (edited by Gerhard
Hoffmann, and published by Cantz and the Canadian Museum of Civilization,
1988), are the exhibition catalogue section and the essays by Gisela Hoffmann,
Bernadette Driscoll and Elizabeth McLuhan. However, Viviane Gray's article
appears here for the first time. Complemented by images of contemporary
Indian and Inuit art, the book provides an overview of the evolution of
contemporary Canadian Native art. Regional styles as well as the styles of
individual artists are discussed, and the various subjects, themes and techniques
reflected in the works of art are examined. This publication testifies to the
remarkable diversity of expression and creative vitality of Canadian Native art.
RÉSUMÉ
Cet ouvrage rend disponible en anglais la plupart des communications
originalement écrites pour accompagner l'exposition du Musée canadien des
civilisations, A l'ombre du soleil. Il ne comporte pas cependant certains
éléments, qui apparaissent dans l'édition originale allemande Im Schatten der
Sonne: Zeitgenossische Kunst der Indianer und Eskimos in Kanada, rédigé par
Gerhard Hoffmann (publié conjointement par Cantz et le Musée canadien des
civilisations, 1988), soit les quatre essais écrits par Gisela Hoffmann, Bernadette
Driscoll et Elizabeth McLuhan ainsi que la section portant sur les objets
exposés. En revanche, un article écrit par Viviane Gray apparaît ici pour la
première fois. Agrémenté de reproductions d'oeuvres d'art amérindien et inuit
contemporain, ce livre offre un aperçu de l'évolution de l'art autochtone
canadien contemporain. Il illustre l'évolution des styles personnels et régionaux,
la diversité des sujets, des thèmes et des techniques. Cette publication
témoigne d'une remarquable diversité dans l'expression de même que du
dynamisme créateur de l'art autochtone canadien.
The Shaman's Wife by Pitseolak Ashoona (1980). Canadian Museum
of Civilization CD 1980-42 .
CONTENTS
1. INTRODUCTION by Gerald McMaster vii
2. THE FOURTH WORLD AND FOURTH WORLD ART by Nelson H.H.
Graburn 1
3. "The Whites Are Thick As Flies In Summertime,"
INDIAN/WHITE RELATIONS IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY by
Joanne MacDonald 27
4. TRENDS IN NORTHWEST COAST INDIAN ART 1880 - 1959:
Decline and Expansion by Peter L. Macnair 47
5. IN SEARCH OF THINGS PAST, REMEMBERED, RETRACED, AND
REINVENTED by Martine Reid 71
6. TENUOUS LINES OF DESCENT: Indian Art and Craft of the
Reservation Period by Gerald McMaster 93
7. THE POLITICAL, ECONOMIC, AND SOCIOCULTURAL CONDITIONS
OF LIFE FOR THE INDIANS OF CANADA IN THE TWENTIETH
CENTURY by Peter R. Gerber 121
8. INDIAN ARTISTS' STATEMENTS THROUGH TIME by Viviane
Gray 137
9. THE ART OF CANADA'S INDIANS AND THE MODERN AESTHETIC by
Gerhard Hoffmann 165
10. OF PUBLIC CONCERN, THE PENSIONING OF THE VISUAL ARTS IN
CANADA SINCE 1945 by Michael Bell 197
11. NORTHWEST COAST INDIAN ART FROM 1950 TO THE PRESENT by
Karen Duffek 213
12. "MESSAGES FROM THE PAST": Oral Traditions and
Contemporary Woodlands Art by Ruth B. Phillips 233
13. POSTMODERN CULTURE AND INDIAN ART by Gerhard Hoffmann.. 257
14. CANADIAN INUIT CULTURE 1800 - 1950 by Ernest S. Burch,
Jr 303
15. THE HISTORY OF INUIT CULTURE by Patricia Sutherland.... 313
16. SOCIAL, ECONOMIC, AND POLITICAL TRANSFORMATION AMONG
CANADIAN INUIT FROM 1950 TO 1988 by Marybelle Mitchell. 333
17. INUIT ART: A History of Government Involvement by
Helga Goetz 357
v
18. THE AESTHETICS OF INUIT ART: Decoration, Symbolism,
and Myth in Inuit Graphics; Material, Form, and Space
in Inuit Sculpture; The Context of Moderism and
Postmodernism by Gerhard Hoffmann 383
19. TALKING WITH THE ARTISTS by Dorothy Harley Eber 425
20. CONTEMPORARY INUIT SCULTURE: An Approach to the
Medium, the Artists, and their Work by Marie Routledge
and Ingo Hessel 443
21. INUIT TEXTILE ARTS by Maria Muehlen 479
22. THREE DECADES OF INUIT PRINTMAKING: Evolution and
Artistic Trends , 1958 - 1988 by Odette Leroux 495
vi
INTRODUCTION
by
Gerald McMaster
In preparation fo r the opening exhibition for the new Canadian
Museum of Civilization (CMC), we were approached by Dr. Gerhard
Hoffmann of the University of Würzburg, West Germany, in early
1987, with a proposal to organize a joint project. The
University of Würzbur g would coordinate the production of an
important and timel y publication on the subject of contemporary
Native Canadian art, and we would produce the accompanying
exhibition. The result was an exhibition that toured to several
museums in Europe and Canada.
From Dr. Hoffmann's point of view, an exhibition of
contemporary Native Canadia n art would enlarge the German
perspective of the Native North American scene, which began with
the successful touring exhibition 20th Century American Indian
Art. The peopl e of Europe, he and others reminded us, have an
ardent interest in the Native North American, and an exhibition
of their artistic heritage would no doubt advance an existing
interest.
At that time, our perspective for organizing such an
exhibition was tha t it would complement (and continue) the highly
acclaimed and criticized exhibition The Spirit Sings: Artistic
Traditions of Canada' s First Peoples, whose emphasis was on pre-
twentieth century Nativ e Canadian art. Both exhibitions were
being proposed as inaugural exhibitions for the new CMC in 1988.
As it was, the opening was delayed an additional year, but The
Spirit Sings did open in 1988 in the recently vacated National
Gallery building.
From the start, the framework for such an exhibition was a
survey of developments in both Indian and Inuit art focusing on
masterworks drawn from public and private collections and
highlighting the CMC collections, among the finest collections of
contemporary Canadian Nativ e art in the world.
Therefore, we needed to give our potential audiences an
appreciation of th e hidden treasures of the museum. These hidden
treasures would soon be displayed: planning included an Indian
and Inuit Ar t Gallery within the new museum. Since our
collections began as contemporary developments in Native
cultures, it was the contemporary Native artist who looked to the
past for inspiratio n through whom the museum felt it had to
maintain a continuity in i ts exhibition mandate. The mandate to
collect and exhibit Native art at once received welcomed support
by contemporary Native artist Edward Poitras. Indicating the
honour he felt when the museum collected his works, he said it
made him feel "at home with his ancestors." This is not to
vii
suggest that a ll the museum's projects are made u p of only Native
inspired themes, styles , and media; some exhibitions had to
prepare new ground. The new ground, as parts of this exhibition
indicate, includes Wester n thought and ideas. It was, however,
the placement o f these works of art within the context of Native
thought, history, and ideas that made the exhibition distinctive.
It would show how the traditions of the past shed light on
today's artists, an d so we chose to call the exhibition In the
Shadow of th e Sun. The sun, in this instance, represents light,
illumination, and knowledg e in the modern world as well as in
Native traditions.
In the Shadow of the Sun was the first major retrospective
exhibition of contemporar y Canadian Indian and Inuit art to be
shown in bot h Canada and in Europe, outlining historical
developments, stylistic variations, idiosyncracies, and current
trends. An exhibition as ambitious as In the Shadow of the Sun
in size an d complexity called for a dedicated team along with
inspired artists, past and present.
From the beginning , we knew a survey meant one thing: it
was critical t o be as inclusive as possible. To do this, we
gathered a team of curators in the field of contemporary Indian
and Inuit art. The Department of Indian and Northern Affairs
(DINA) joined the project early on, their team led by Maria
Muehlen of the Inuit Art Section. Once the basic infrastructure
was established, we gathered the curators together in Ottawa for
several meetings. Two teams were created. The Indian Art team
consisted of Geral d McMaster, Tom Hill, Elizabeth McLuhan, Ruth
Phillips, Alan Hoover , Carol Podedworney, and Karen Duffek. The
Inuit Art tea m consisted of Odette Leroux, Maria Muehlen, Marie
Routledge, and Ingo Hessel. Several meetings took place (with
sub-teams meeting independently), and decisions were made about
the exhibition's scop e and content.
The essential criteria were that the artworks had to be
extant and their "quality" had to be mutually agreed upon by the
curators. The exhibition's framework of contemporaneity-works
had to have been made after the Second World War-was established,
with occasiona l exceptions. Then the thematic framework was
established with th e following categories: Northwest Coast; the
Image Makers; Modernists/PostModernists; and Inuit sculpture,
graphics, and textiles .
Two other decisions were made: who the artists were to be
(some artists participate d by default because they were
deceased), and who the authors were to be.
As the finalizing of artists, artworks, and authors neared
completion (spring 1987) , research began in several key areas: a
complete analysis of each work of art, the collating of artists'
biographies and th e authors' essays. Completion date was set for
late winter 1988. Shipping of the artworks from public and
private collections for photography and cataloguing took place
viii
during this time. The direction the authors were given was that
their essays ha d to "problematize" and give context for each
theme. Other essay s would deal with issues beyond the scope of
the works, bu t giving valuable arguments for the exhibition's
contemporaneity. Some essays thus begin at about the time of the
formation of "reserves" and the promulgation of the Indian Act in
the 1880s; but in most instances they do not refer to actual
works in th e exhibition.
The decision early in 1988 to postpone opening of the museum
until 1989, because of construction delays, altered the timing of
the two shows. The Spirit Sings, amid an increasing controversy,
was scheduled to open in Ottawa that spring. In the Shadow of
the Sun, by contrast, needed a new venue. Negotiations then began
to send it to West Germany. The Ubersee Museum in Bremen was
targeted as the first venue in August.
With a l l 275 objects packed and ready for transport, with
the catalogue busily being translated into German at the
University o f Würzburg, the exhibition was ready. In early July,
however, we discovered the Ubersee had backed out. But the
second German venue, Dortmund, was on schedule for an early
December 1988 opening. The delay gave Würzburg more time to
produce the catalogue.
Planning the exhibition's placement took account of two
factors: its relativel y large size, and the two distinct
statements the exhibition would make (Indian and Inuit).
Consequently, arranging mor e than one exhibition facility was
tricky but gave receiving museums a higher profile. By the time
the show opened in Dortmund, two further venues had been
arranged: the Museum Am Ostwall exhibited the Indian art
portion, while the Museum Fur Kunst Und Kulturegeschichte
exhibited the Inuit art portion. The exhibitions, much to our
delight, were a critical success. Paying attendance was roughly
30,000, with considerable media coverage; and extremely vigorous
public programming ensured the exhibition's popular success.
The exhibition was brought back to Hull for the CMC's gala
opening on June 29, 1989. In the Shadow of the Sun inaugurated
the new Indian and Inuit Art Gallery, with about 50 per cent of
the exhibition on display in approximately 706 square m.
The premiere of the museum and the exhibition signalled a
new era for a redefinition of museums and their relation to art,
in particular non-Western or Native art. As these following
essays indicate , the study and elucidation of art (non-Western)
in non-traditional media, by (Native) art historians,
anthropologists, (Native) artists, and literary scholars, gives
critical awarnes s of the growing popularity of contemporary
Indian and Inui t art. The traditional notions of authority and
representation have bee n seriously criticized and eroded both
inside and outsid e the discipline of anthropology in the past
decade. No longer is Native art and/or culture its stronghold.
ix