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Native Art
A History of Native Art in Canada and North America
The story of the development of native art in North America is complex and must rely a great deal on archaeological and ethnographical evidence. The history of native art in Canada began sometime during the last ice age although the earliest surviving artifacts... decorative and depictive carvings from the Lower Fraser Valley in British Columbia...appear to date from only 5000 years ago.
The development of native art may be divided into three distinct periods:
prehistoric art
contact or "historic" art
contemporay native art
Ethnographers have shown that a correct interpretation of the function and meaning of Native artworks depends upon an understanding and appreciation of the ways of life, aesthetic values and principles of the peoples themselves.
Prehistoric Native Art
Relative to the other periods, there is little known about the prehistoric period of native art in North America. The end of the prehistoric period varies from region to region across the continent. For example in Canada, the first contact with the French explorers in the Maritimes and along the St. Lawrence River took place in the 16th century, but Europeans didn't meet up with the First Nations people living on the west coast until late in the 18th century.
Climatic and geographic conditions don't allow for the survival of artworks made from perishable materials like wood, fibre or hide, so most prehistoric art has been lost. A major exception has been rock art...paintings in red ochre or carvings incised upon natural rock surfaces. Yet there have been some important discoveries. A tiny antler figurine, probably 4000 years, old gives evidence of the beginnings of what would become historic northwest coast art and a 5000 year old petroglyph site in northwestern Ontario speaks of the imagery that is used by contemporary artists.
The discovery and dating of prehistoric artworks depends on painstaking excavation and careful interpretation. Totem poles were once thought to be the product of European contact, but its since been verifired that they have had a continuous on-site development dating back at least 2500 years.
Like contemporary art, prehistoric art has varied not only in genre, style, function, imagery and meaning from region to region, but has undergone changes from period to period. Across North America these changes accelerated around 1000BC when pottery, agriculture and settled village life in the Eastern Woodlands made its impact.
There are several exceptional occurrences of prehistoric art in Canada.
The Marpole culture which existed from approximately 500BC to 500 AD along the Fraser River delta and the surrounding Gulf Islands produced a plentiful variety of stone and bone carvings in the shape of ceremonial bowls, effigies and utensils that are distinct forerunners of the style and iconography of historic west coast native art.
In southern Ontario the precontact Iroquoian culture between 900 - 1600 AD produced highly technical and visually appealing pottery that was decorated with representational and geometric designs. The same culture produced clay and stone effigy pipes of fascinating shape and iconographic variety. The bowls and stems were carved in high relief or incised with human and zoomorphic images (lizards, turtles and birds) which are still powerful animals in the iconography of Great Lakes religious art.
Historic Native Art
Because so many examples of postcontact native art have been collected, sketched and written about by explorers, traders, missionaries, artists and scholars for more than 400 years, much is known of historic native art. The distribution and cultural character of Native groups in the early contact period have resulted in a distorted view of the great depth, diversity and richness of native art history.
Native Art in Canada can be divided into seven regional subdivisions
The Eastern Subarctic native art is probably the oldest in Canada. The majority of prehistoric and early contact rock art sites are located in this region of the Canadian shield. The inhabitants - the Ojibwa, Cree, Algonquin, Ottawa, Montagnais, Naskapi, M'qMak and the Maliseet - were largely Algonquin speaking people who lived a nomadic lifestyle based on hunting, fishing and the gathering of wild foods. In some cases the lifestyle continued well into the 20th century.
The Western Subarctic native art came from a region of environmental and cultural conditions similar to that inhabited by the Cree in the eastern Subarctic, but was produced by Athapaskan speaking peoples. The Dene Nation, as the Athapaskans prefer to be called, are linguistically distinct, but share a comparable culture with their eastern neighbours. Decoration of personal gear and clothing was the major form of artistic expression. Caribou and moose hid was embellished with porcupine quills, moosehair tuftting (introduced by the Grey Nuns in the late 1800's), beads and commercial threads in geometric and floral patterns. The artisans seem to have had a well developed sense of color and design compared to some of their Eastern counterparts.
The Southern Great Lakes and Upper St Lawrence Valley from the late prehistoric to the early historic period underwent more rapid changes than any other region in Canada. The Huron and Iroquois were farmers living in relatively permanent villages and their political and social institutions were expressed in suitable works of art. But by the 19th century many of the First Nations peoples living in this area had migrated both westward and eastward or were even settling into Reserves in the area. Art came to have a new purpose. It was a source of income to people whose traditional means of livelihood had been destroyed. Arrt was made to be sold to outsiders...tourists and collectors of "native arts and crafts". But even in prehistoric times this culture was affected by outside influence. The Iroquois in particular had trade connections to the south with the highly complex and economically advanced Eastern Woodland cultures along the Mississippi. The Woodland culture had in turn been influenced by the Mayan civilization in Central America. Innovations to technology of making pottery entered Canada through this trade source, for example.
Historic Prairie Native Culture and Art, as it developed in the 19th century, was a combination of Native and white cultures - the product of postcontact European influences such as the horse and the gun which provided increased mobility and effectiveness in the buffalo hunt. Art produced by the Bloods, the Blackfoot and the Assiniboine was similar in technique, materials and motifs to that of the subarctic and eastern neighbours. But, most native art produced by people living on the prairies was two dimensional and painting on hides was the major genre. Large tipis might that used up to 40 buffalo hides were the major architectural form. The Blackfoot lavishly painted the tipis of important men with naturalistic and geometric motifs. Dream images on rawhide shields might be said to be comparable to contemporary surrealistic paintings in visionary and aesthetic impact. Painted buffalo robes were another major art form. Personal belongings like deer hide moccasins, jackets, dresses, legings and shirts were embellished with porcupine wuill work and beads. Rawhide containers of various sizes, parfleches for example, were unique to the area and each had its own distinct design painted on.
Native Art from the Plateau region of central British Columbia is unique in may ways. The interior Salish left behind a major body of prehistoric pictographs. The Lillooet, Thompson, Okanagan and Shuswap of the historic era made finely crafted and watertight baskets using a coiling technique and decorated them with geometric motifs. The plateau peoples may have been the only First Nations group in Canada to have used textiles - they wove blankets from mountain goat hair - and next to nothing is known of their clothing or religious beliefs which would provide a context for an interpretaion of their art.
Northwest Coast Native Art - more coming on this in a couple of days
Arctic Native Art
- more coming on this shortly
Contemporary Native Art
Canadian aboriginal art of the prehistoric and postconact periods can be described as traditional art. Althoug it was affected by European materials, techniques and motifs during the hstoric period it was largely shaped by the context of the culture which created it. However, contemporary native art, like contemporary art all over the world, has a different purpose. Contemporary native art is a means of self-expression and recently of sociopolitical activism.
For discussions sake, contemporary native art is that which has been produced from about 1945. Three major schools have emerged - Inuit Art, West Coast Native Art and the Woodlands School of Legend painters. But there is a fourth group - a widely scattered group of independant artists who work independently within the context of mainstream Western art. And I suppose a fifth category if one considers "tourist" or "souvenir" art as a category.The latter isn't new. It came into being to satisfy the Euro/Canadian market for "Indian souvenirs" as early as the 19th century. The production of replicas of traditional forms to European travellers and colonists gave way to new kinds of objects that were specifically made for sale as souvenirs...argyllite carvings by the Haida of British Columbia, beaded pouches, necklaces, moccasins and pin cushions (and other Victorian whimsies) were made by the Iroquois and Algonquin peoples for sale at Niagra Falls or at agricultural fairs. Carved ivory cribbage boards and miniature genre carvings have been a staple of the Inuit for a hundred years.
- Canadian Aboriginal Art
In the aesthetic sense, Canadian aboriginal art didn't occur as a concept until the midpoint of the twentieth century.
- Norval Morrisseau
Ojibwa artist Norval Morrisseau is the grandfather of native art in Canada. His vision of himself and his people created the possibility that native artists and native culture could stand along side the art and culture of the Canadian mainstream society.
- Indian Group of Seven
In 1973 seven native artists gave birth to the Indian Group of Seven, or as they called themselves, the Professional National Indian Artists Inc.
- Woodland Art
Canadian native artists have produced three major schools - Woodland Art, Inuit Art and West Coast Art. All have been based on ancient traditions that, despite the persistent and pervasive forces of acculturation, have endured to the present day.
- The Second Wave of Canadian Native Artists
In 1972 the show Treaty Numbers 23, 287, 1171 broke the ice jam of native art in Canadian galleries. The following year, artists participating in the show formed The Professional National Indian Artists Inc and mentored a second wave of Canadian Native Artists.
- Other Native Artists
With a decade of Morrisseau's breakthrough in Toronto, young native people across the country began to consider that itwas possible to have an art career. Here are a few of those artists.
