DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.42067#0028
18
The formal element in art
time the baskets are elaborately decorated with a variety of geo-
metrical designs or by the addition of shells and feathers. (Plate I.)
Basketmaking is an occupation of women and thus it happens that
among the Californian Indians only women are creative artists.
They are virtuosos in their technique and on account of their
virtuosity productive. The works of art made by the men are, as
compared to theirs, insignificant.
It so happens that conditions
among the northern neighbors of
the Californians are reversed.
From Puget Sound northward the
household goods and implements
of the Indians are made of wood,
and much of the time of the men
is spent in woodworking. They
are skilled joiners and carvers
who through constant practice have
acquired virtuosity in the handling
of wood. The exactness of their
work rivals that of our very best
craftsmen. Their boxes, buckets,
kettles, cradles, and dishes are all
made of wood, as those of the Californians are made of basketry. In
their lives basketry plays a relatively unimportant part. The industry
in which they have attained greatest proficiency, is, at the same time,
the one in which their decorative art is most fully developed. It finds
expression, not only in the beauty of form of the woodwork, but also
in elaborate decoration. Among these people all other aspects of
decorative art are weak as compared to their artistic expression in
woodwork or in art forms derived from woodwork (fig. 1). All
this work is done by men and hence it follows that the men are
the creative artists while the women seem to be lacking in inven-
tiveness and artistic sense. Here also virtuosity in technique and
artistic productivity go hand in hand.
Fig. 1. Front of painted box,
Tlingit, Alaska.
The formal element in art
time the baskets are elaborately decorated with a variety of geo-
metrical designs or by the addition of shells and feathers. (Plate I.)
Basketmaking is an occupation of women and thus it happens that
among the Californian Indians only women are creative artists.
They are virtuosos in their technique and on account of their
virtuosity productive. The works of art made by the men are, as
compared to theirs, insignificant.
It so happens that conditions
among the northern neighbors of
the Californians are reversed.
From Puget Sound northward the
household goods and implements
of the Indians are made of wood,
and much of the time of the men
is spent in woodworking. They
are skilled joiners and carvers
who through constant practice have
acquired virtuosity in the handling
of wood. The exactness of their
work rivals that of our very best
craftsmen. Their boxes, buckets,
kettles, cradles, and dishes are all
made of wood, as those of the Californians are made of basketry. In
their lives basketry plays a relatively unimportant part. The industry
in which they have attained greatest proficiency, is, at the same time,
the one in which their decorative art is most fully developed. It finds
expression, not only in the beauty of form of the woodwork, but also
in elaborate decoration. Among these people all other aspects of
decorative art are weak as compared to their artistic expression in
woodwork or in art forms derived from woodwork (fig. 1). All
this work is done by men and hence it follows that the men are
the creative artists while the women seem to be lacking in inven-
tiveness and artistic sense. Here also virtuosity in technique and
artistic productivity go hand in hand.
Fig. 1. Front of painted box,
Tlingit, Alaska.