Beyond mask and totem pole: Vancouver is the hub of a thriving market in
contemporary works by Northwest Coast native artists
By KEVIN GRIFFIN, Vancouver Sun
October 8, 2010
http://www.vancouversun.com/entertainment/Beyond+mask+totem+pole+Vancouver+thriving+market+contemporary+works/3646516/story.html
Douglas Reynolds, director of the Douglas Reynolds Gallery on Granville Street
in Vancouver, with artist Shawn Hunt's acrylic on cnavas Dancing Frog.
Photograph by: Les Bazso, PNG
VANCOUVER -- When British artist Damien Hirst went shopping for a totem pole
for his house in Mexico, he set his sights on Vancouver.
Hirst, believed to be the wealthiest artist in the world and for years the
enfant terrible of the British art world, found what he was looking for at the
Douglas Reynolds Gallery on South Granville. After initially picking up few
pieces Northwest Coast art, Hirst moved on to a commissioning a sizable project
from the gallery.
By the time it was completed in November 2008, the commission had grown to
include five 10-metre totem poles, several smaller totem poles and bent boxes
and a number of panels, all of which were shipped to England. Gallery owner
Douglas Reynolds wouldn't reveal its total value, but put it between $2 million
and $5 million.
Hirst is far from the only collector to drop a bundle on Northwest Coast art in
Vancouver. The city is known by collectors as the pre-eminent centre to buy the
best art produced by Northwest Coast artists. Locally, that market is estimated
to be in excess of $100 million annually.
But Vancouver is more than a market and creative hub for the art of the
Northwest Coast; it has also become a centre for first nations artists from
across the country attracted to the west coast for the region's vibrant and
politically engaged aboriginal art community. Art produced by artists of
aboriginal descent has broken out of its narrow boundaries as craft objects for
the tourist trade and is increasingly becoming seen on its own terms as
contemporary art.
Tania Willard, a curator and member of the Secwepemc Nation, said the vibrancy
of the Northwest Coast art scene is intimately linked with the struggle in B.C.
on land claims, indigenous sovereignty and other political issues.
"Aboriginal politics have played a role in contemporary art in Vancouver," she
said in a phone interview from Chase, where she lives.
"The resurgence in culture and tradition has included art forms. It was a way
to assert sovereignty and address the land question. Those things are all
really linked. Artists took a huge leap in preserving and passing on art forms."
Willard said part of the story of the vibrancy in the contemporary first
nations art scene is the support it has received from the non-aboriginal art
world. Her own experience illustrates that. She did her curatorial residency
with the grunt gallery in east Vancouver, a small gallery with a big history of
supporting emerging first nations art and artists. Over the years, the grunt
has created an exhibition and social space for first nations art by showing
critically engaged work by artists such as Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun, Rebecca
Belmore and Dana Claxton. Claxton's first commercial exhibition opens today at
the Winsor Gallery on South Granville.
"In many ways, I think grunt gallery has been a leader in showcasing first
nations artists," she said. "That's been important outside of the community. It
has also made a community of itself."
No art is created in isolation and the critically engaged work by first nations
artists and about first nations issues shown at galleries such as grunt has
also had an influence, however indirectly, on Northwest Coast art.
As an example, Reynolds cited Robert Davidson, a senior Haida artist with an
international reputation for his Northwest Coast designs. While still working
within the tradition, he's moving in a more contemporary direction by creating
much more minimalist sculptural works in aluminum.
One young artist with an art school background and a pop art sensibility is
Shawn Hunt. Known for creating the cheeky image of a raven on top of a
Campbell's Soup can of clam chowder, the Heiltsuk artist recently painted a
striking image in bright green and copper called Dancing Frog that pushes the
boundaries of Northwest Coast formline and design.
"There has been a jump and resurgence in modern, contemporary Northwest Coast
art," Reynolds said.
"We're doing a lot of large commissions and people are incorporating Northwest
Coast sculpture and panels and totem poles into the design of the house, rather
than a totem pole that stands out front or a carved front door. They're taking
it to another level."
Since an exhibition in mid-September, the gallery has sold six of nine bronze
Raven sculptures by Jim Hart at $150,000 each.
Reynolds said the numbers indicate the strong regional appeal of Northwest
Coast art. Of 36 pieces that sold following the gallery's 15th anniversary
exhibition, 13 stayed in B.C. and eight went elsewhere in the country; 12 were
shipped to the U.S. and three to Europe.
Ironically, this strong local demand for Northwest Coast art might be hampering
its international reach, according to art academic George MacDonald.
As the director of the Bill Reid Centre of Northwest Coast Art Studies at Simon
Fraser University and former director of the Burke Museum of Natural History
and Culture in Seattle and the Canadian Museum of Civilization in Ottawa,
MacDonald knows Northwest Coast art like few other people.
"It has not expanded internationally as I expected it might have, based on its
quality," he said. "One of the reasons is that there is so much demand in the
Northwest - and I'm including Portland, Seattle, Vancouver, and Victoria."
Because most of the limited supply of top quality Northwest Coast art is bought
in the region, MacDonald said, collectors and writers in art centres such as
New York haven't been exposed to the outstanding works.
Not only does Vancouver outshine any other Canadian city when it comes to
commercial galleries for Northwest Coast art, it also is far ahead of Seattle.
One of the major differences between the two cities is that all the reputable
dealers in Vancouver are aware of the training and history of the artists whose
works they sell. In Seattle, anyone can make and sell art in the Northwest
Coast tradition,
"It is an entirely different market," he said. "Up here, the art has to be
pedigreed to a native artist producer. You have a very big market in Seattle,
but very few native artists. So there's a real dearth and real demand so there
are a lot more non-native artists producing and selling in the market."
Six years ago, MacDonald looked at the sales sheets of local gallerists and
came up with an estimate of $100 million annually in sales and resales of new
Northwest Coast art in Metro Vancouver. He also estimated that up to 1,600
people rely on Northwest Coast art for a living.
"I think it is considerably higher now," he said, "Many of the artists have
developed websites and sell directly to collectors around the world."
kevingrif...@vancouversun.com
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
------------------------------------
Native News North
List info{all lists}:
http://nativenewsonline.org/natnews.htm
Yahoo! Groups Links
<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NatNews-north/
<*> Your email settings:
Individual Email | Traditional
<*> To change settings online go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NatNews-north/join
(Yahoo! ID required)
<*> To change settings via email:
natnews-north-dig...@yahoogroups.com
natnews-north-fullfeatu...@yahoogroups.com
<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
natnews-north-unsubscr...@yahoogroups.com
<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
