Social Science Native American Studies
Bill Reid
Beyond the Essential Form
- Publisher
- UBC Press
- Initial publish date
- Nov 2007
- Category
- Native American Studies
-
Paperback / softback
- ISBN
- 9780774802635
- Publish Date
- Jan 1986
- List Price
- $21.95
-
eBook
- ISBN
- 9780774856959
- Publish Date
- Nov 2007
- List Price
- $125.00
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Description
Bill Reid, master artist, goldsmith, carver, writer, and spokesman, has been widely acclaimed as the pivotal force in the rediscovery and reflowering of the great art traditions of the Natives of the Northwest Coast. According to eminent French anthropologist Levi-Strauss, Reid "brought Northwest Coast art to the world scene, into dialogue with the whole of mankind."
In this artistic biography, Karen Duffek gives an account of Bill Reid's life and work and of his role as artist, innovator, and ambassador of Haida art. After describing the processes by which Reid came to reconstruct the formal rules of a complex artistic tradition, Duffek focuses on his mastery of new techniques, particularly in making jewellery, techniques which others now emulate. In the key chapter "Beyond the Essential Form," she uses Reid's own categories of his work as "copies, adaptations and explorations," to give a candid appraisal of his artistic achievements -- from massive poles to gold boxes, from intricate bracelets to the great bronze Killerwhale statue.
Specialists, collectors, and lay readers with an interest in Northwest Coast Native art or in Reid's work in particular will welcome this insightful critical biography published in association with a Reid exhibit at the University of British Columbia's Museum of Anthropology.
About the author
Karen Duffek is the Curator of Contemporary Visual Arts and Pacific Northwest at the Museum of Anthropology (MOA) at the University of British Columbia. Her research focus lies both in the history of MOA's Northwest Coast Aboriginal collections — including connecting and documenting historical objects with descendants and originating community members — and in the relationship of twentieth-century and contemporary art to cultural practice. Her publications include the books Bill Reid and Beyond: Expanding on Modern Native Art (co-edited with Charlotte Townsend-Gault, 2004) and The Transforming Image: Painted Arts of Northwest Coast First Nations (co-authored with Bill McLennan, 2000).
Other titles by
Echoes of the Supernatural
The Graphic Art of Robert Davidson
The Transforming Image, 2nd Ed.
Painted Arts of Northwest Coast First Nations
Where the Power Is
Indigenous Perspectives on Northwest Coast Art
Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun
Unceded Territories
The Transforming Image
Painted Arts of Northwest Coast First Nations
Bill Reid and Beyond
Expanding on Modern Native Art
Bill Reid
Beyond the Essential Form