Kwakiutl Art

This is a very good, comprehensive book of Kwakiutl carving. I have been painting and carving northwest style art for 20 years and is a tremendous resource both for ideas and understanding the art style.

This is a classic work on the Kwakiutl (KWAH-kee-oo-tel) and other Northwest Coast (NWC) Indian tribes and features artifacts displayed at the University of British Columbia Museum of Anthropology. NWC Indian art was functionally adapted to perform a task or to convey a message. Adaptation and continuity, tradition and change, are the hallmarks of the history and the culture of the Kwakiutl. They along with the Haida, Tlinglit, Tsimshian, and Coast Salish formed the culture area of the NWC Indian tribes who inhabited a long narrow ocean shoreline that stretched 1200 miles from Yakutat Bay to the Olympic Peninsula.Mungo Martin was prominent in the formation of this collection. Martin (Indian name: Naka'penkem) was a full participant in the Kwakiutl ceremonial system. His expertise was critical in the separation of true Kwakiutl art from the fake. He also brought attention to the fact many NWC Indian artifacts and totem poles were destroyed by over-zealous missionaries who considered them pagan idols and that the remainder were and are eroding due to the humid weather endemic in the Pacific NW.NWC Indians were highly developed builders of totem poles, canoes, masks, and elegantly decorated plank houses. Unlike the Plains Indians, they were able to porduce a rich variety of art as they were freed from a constant search for food. About 85% of the food consumed by these coastal people came from the ocean and rivers, the products of which were smoked and preserved for the long wet winters. Deer, Elk, and Bear were also plentiful throughout the forested areas. Thus, an affluent and highly developed society came into existence.The Kwakiutl ornamented their bodies with tattoos, fiber capes with button decorations, and intricately carved heraldic crests. They were fine looking people with coppery/reddish colored hair, beards and moustaches. They and the Haida were considered the most skilled woodcarvers on the NW coast. The Kwakiutl built long wooden houses facing the sea without the use of saws, axes, or nails. The fronts of the houses were often painted in bright colors of black, red, and blue-green.By the 1800s, the Kwakiutl began creating richly painted and very tall totem poles. The totems represented important events in a chief's life, illustrated through the use of crest figures piled one above the other throughout the length of the pole. The totems fronted houses and were initially designed as support for the buildings. Totems were also erected as memorials showing family lineages (either paternal or maternal), mortuary purposes, or to serve as an entrance to a house by carving a hole near the base of the pole for use as a doorway.The three-dimensional carvings on the poles were emphasized by the flat painting behind them and by the pattern of cedar planking held in place by thongs or pegs made of antler and wood. Certain animals were used on totems to tell a story if they bore a close relati