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Woodland Art
A Style of Native Art with an Ancient and Enduring Tradition
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.
Although the training, lifestyles and creative motivation of contemporary native artists differ profoundly from their ancient counterparts, today's Woodland Art is sourced by traditional artistic representations used by prehistoric Eastern Woodland Indians.
The latter term describes a polygot of tribal societies that once inhabited an area in North America that extended from the northern tree line and the headwaters of the McKenzie River, to the lands surrounding the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River, south to the Gulf forests and east to the Atlantic seabord.
Contemporary Art of the Eastern Woodlands in Canada is Sourced from Prehistoric Imagery
Research can confirm that in ancient times three main categories of representational imagery (other than human) predominated:
- The first was large carnivores - especially bears and large cats.
- The second was snakes.
- The third was birds - most often raptors, especially hawks and eagles.
Other subject matter from nature occurred but was relatively uncommon. Today the range of subject matter iis broader, but it isn't coincidence that there are so many references to birds, large carnivores and snakes.
A second similarity common to contemporary and prehistoric traditions is the prevalence of images of transformation or simultaneity. That means, representations of a man or an animal being two life forms at the same time. For example, both Norval Morrisseau and Daphne Odjig did paintings they entitled Thunderbird Man. Their human/bird imagery is powerfully reminiscent of similar human/bird images carved into both copper and shell from pre-historic sites that date from 1000AD and 1400AD.
A third common theme in pre-historic and contemporary art from the woodlands is the depiction of sprititual interaction or fighting between both animal and human beings. Twentieth century examples are works by Daphne Odjig and Carl Ray ... by coincidence, both entitled Conflict between Good and Evil.
The prehistoric traditions included a tendency to mix stylized forms from nature with non-naturalistic designs and it was common to use inconsistent and confusing relationships between figures and the background. This tendency to be imprecise in the definition of positive and negative space was so basic to the ancient traditions that it reflects the essence of the structures and classification systems of the cultures.
Despite the forces of acculturization, similar ambiguities persist in modern Woodland Art. But there are other, perhaps even more significant connections between the prehistoric and the present day traditions.
It's worthwhile to compare the emergence of Woodland Art within the mainstream of Canadian cultural crises to the bursts of artistic and ritual activity developed in response fo cultural crisis in pre-contact times.
Woodland Art has always had a profound impact on woodland culture. Read on...
The Woodlands School of Art...
To understand the influence of woodland art, it's worthwhile noting that long before Europeans arrived on the shores of North America, First Nations people, for one reason or another, faced cultural catastrophes. Interestingly, it was sometimes artistic creativity that rode to the rescue!
In Canada it was Norval Morrisseau who Rode to the Rescue of the Ojibwa...
By the mid-twentieth century in Canada Ojibwa society was in disarray. The Reserve system, the Christian churches and the residential school system had been working for years to eliminate traditional beliefs and social customs. Morrisseau fought back by defying the taboo of openly revealing the significance of the stories and symbolism of the shaman spiritual leaders.
Influence of the Woodlands School
The woodlands school influence was immediate on Manitoulin Island, home to Daphne Odjig.
