NATIVE VISIONS by Steven Brown

If you are interested in Northwest native art, then this is a must read.
Not just a catalogue for a touring exhibition, but a synthesis of 1990s perspectives.

Oldest form of box

 I'll use Tsimshian boxes as illustration of what I take to be Brown's thesis: NW art has evolved considerably over past 200 years and Brown helps us recognize and appreciate those changes. He is articulating a connoisseurship that has changed our perceptions of this art from "crafts" to "local equivalent of Michelangelo" to paraphrase a contemporary Rupert artist.

This Tsimshian(?) wealth box dates from earliest contact period -- the 1780s. It is the same design as above but the style has evolved.
Again attributed to Tsimshian about 1850s.
Brown can see differences in the way the formlines are handled.
The Tsimshian used thinner blacks etc.

This is by our contemporary David Boxley from Metlakatla Alaska.
Go back over this series and you see Browns interpretation--- over time the formlines take up less space--- here perhaps only 50%, but almost 100% in the oldest one. What was negative space has become positive over time.

Brown has also given a working model for different periods with the great Haida artist Charles Edenshaw epitomizing the late classical era 1865-1920.

Read the book

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