 |
The American Museum of Natural
History houses the most extensive collection of Northwest Coast Indian art in
existence. It includes material from virtually every native group that once
lived along the west coast of British Columbia and Alaska. From the Land of the
Totem Poles traces the history of this magnificent collection, beginning in the
late nineteenth century when the customs, languages, and art of the coastal
peoples were still intact. Shortly after the collection was formed, between
1880 and 1910, Indian culture in this region went into a severe decline, to be
revived a half century later as a new generation of native North Americans
reclaimed their heritage. "Enhanced by a text that places each artifact in its cultural context and explains its use, this work is far more than a catalog of the American Museum of Natural History's extensive collection of Northwest Coast Indian art. Jonaitis has compiled a sampling of hundreds of items, using biographies of the early anthropologists that visited Northwest Coast tribes to outline the rites they discovered, and framing her account with old and new photographs of the masks, vessels, and images used in spiritual and physical life."-Library Journal |
"The plates and photographs illustrate a text that reviews more than 100 years of study and collection mounted by a famous museum.. . . Art historian Aldona Jonaitis's text follows the characters and events that contributed to the shaping of the collection and uses its history to skilfully illustrate the development of the Western world's understanding of the supposedly primitive cultures it has attempted to vanquish." -The Vancouver Sun "Jonaitis tells of the factors that brought about the appreciation of Northwest Coast artifacts as art by the museum establishment and its espousal by the Surrealists and the Abstract Expressionists. She includes an account of the revival that the art style has undergone since the 1940s.. . . She concludes with a mention of the work of [contemporary artists] who are so successfully incorporating traditional forms into their paintings and sculptures today."-American Indian Art Magazine |
|
Send us 
an email