Native art of the Northwest Coast : a history of changing ideas

Townsend-Gault, Charlotte (Author). Townsend-Gault, Charlotte (editor of compilation .). Kramer, Jennifer, (editor of compilation .). Ḳi-ḳe-in, 1948- (editor of compilation .).

Summary: A work of critical historiography, it makes accessible for the first time in one place a broad selection of more than 250 years of writing on Northwest Coast "art." Organized thematically, its excerpted texts are from both published and unpublished sources, some not previously available in English. They cover such complex topics as the clash between oral and written knowledge, transcultural entanglement, the influence of surrealist thinking, and the long history of the deployment of Northwest Coast Native art for nationalist purposes. The selections are preceded by introductions that give historical context to the diverse intellectual traditions that have influenced, stimulated, and opposed each other - publisher's website.

Record details

ISBN: 9780774820493 (bound)
ISBN: 0774820497 (bound)
Physical Description: print
xxxvi, 1081 pages : illustrations (some color) ; 27 cm.
Publisher: Vancouver : UBC Press, 2013.

Content descriptions

General Note:	CatMonthString:september.13
Bibliography, etc. Note:	Includes bibliographical references and index.
Formatted Contents Note:	Contents with Excerpts Listed -- List of Figures -- Preface -- Introduction: The Idea of Northwest Coast "First Nation" Art -- 1. Interpreting Cultural Symbols of the People from the Shore -- 2. Hilth Hiitinkis -- From the Beach -- 3. Haida Cosmic -- 4. From Explorers to Ethnographers -- 5. Thresholds of Meaning: Voice, Time, and Epistemology in the Archaeological Consideration of Northwest Coast Art -- 6. Objects and Knowledge: Early Accounts from Ethnographers, and Their Written Records and Collecting Practices -- 7. "That Which Was Most Important": Louis Shotridge on Crest Art and Clan History -- 8. Anthropology of Art: Shifting Paradigms and Practices -- 9. Going by the Book: Missionary Perspectives -- 10. The Dark Years -- 11. Surrealists and the New York Avant-Garde -- 12. Northwest Coast Art and Canadian National Identity -- 13. Art/Craft in the Early Twentieth Century -- 14. Welfare Politics, Late Salvage, and "First Nation" (In)Visibility -- 15. Form First, Function Follows: The Use of Formal Analysis in Northwest Coast Art History -- 16. Democratization and Northwest Coast Art in the Modern Period: "First Nation" Emissaries, non-"First Nation" Connoisseurship, and Consumption -- 17. History and Critique of the "Renaissance" Discourse -- 18. Starting from the Beginning -- 19. Shifting Theory, Shifting Publics: The Anthropology of Northwest Coast Art in the Postwar Era -- 20. Value Added: The Northwest Coast Art Market since 1965 -- 21. "Where Mere Words Failed": Northwest Coast Art and Law -- 22. Art for Whose Sake? -- 23. "Fighting with Property": The Double-Edged Character of Ownership -- 24. Museums and Northwest Coast Art -- 25. Collaborations: A Historical Perspective -- 26. Pushing Boundaries, Defying Categories: "First Nation" Media Production on the Northwest Coast -- 27. Art Claims in the Age of Delgamuukw -- 28. Stop Listening to Our Ancestors -- 29. NWC on the Up ... Load: Surfing for Northwest Coast Art -- 30. The Material and the Immaterial across Borders -- Works Cited -- Notes on Contributors -- Index.