DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.42067#0209
ART OF THE NORTH PACIFIC COAST OF NORTH
AMERICA1
The general principles discussed in the preceding chapters, may
now be elucidated by a discussion of the style of the decorative
art of the Indians of the North Pacific Coast of North America.
Two styles maybe distinguished: the man’s style expressed in the art
of wood carving and painting and their derivatives; and the woman’s
style which finds expression in weaving, basketry, and embroidery.
The two styles are fundamentally distinct. The former is sym-
bolic, the latter formal. The symbolic art has a certain degree of
realism and is full of meaning. The formal art has, at most, pattern
names and no especially marked significance.
We shall discuss the symbolic art first. Its essential characteristics
are an almost absolute disregard of the principles of perspective,
emphasis of significant symbols and an arrangement dictated by the
form of the decorative field.
While the Eskimo of Arctic America, the Chukchee and Koryak
of Siberia, the Negroes and many other people use carvings in the
round which serve no practical ends, but are made for the sake of
representing a figure,— man, animal, or supernatural being,— almost
all the work of the Indian artist of the region that we are considering
serves at the same time a useful end. When making simple totemic
figures, the artist is free to shape his subjects without adapting them
to the forms of utensils, but owing to their large size, he is limited
by the cylindrical form of the trunk of the tree from which they
are carved. The native artist is almost always restrained by the
shape of the object to which the decoration is applied.
The technical perfection of carvings and paintings, the exactness
and daring of composition and lines prove that realistic representa-
1 The present chapter is a revised edition of my essay, “The Decorative Art of
the Indians of the North Pacific Coast of America” (Bulletin American Museum of
Natural History, Vol. IX, pp. 123—176, 1897).
AMERICA1
The general principles discussed in the preceding chapters, may
now be elucidated by a discussion of the style of the decorative
art of the Indians of the North Pacific Coast of North America.
Two styles maybe distinguished: the man’s style expressed in the art
of wood carving and painting and their derivatives; and the woman’s
style which finds expression in weaving, basketry, and embroidery.
The two styles are fundamentally distinct. The former is sym-
bolic, the latter formal. The symbolic art has a certain degree of
realism and is full of meaning. The formal art has, at most, pattern
names and no especially marked significance.
We shall discuss the symbolic art first. Its essential characteristics
are an almost absolute disregard of the principles of perspective,
emphasis of significant symbols and an arrangement dictated by the
form of the decorative field.
While the Eskimo of Arctic America, the Chukchee and Koryak
of Siberia, the Negroes and many other people use carvings in the
round which serve no practical ends, but are made for the sake of
representing a figure,— man, animal, or supernatural being,— almost
all the work of the Indian artist of the region that we are considering
serves at the same time a useful end. When making simple totemic
figures, the artist is free to shape his subjects without adapting them
to the forms of utensils, but owing to their large size, he is limited
by the cylindrical form of the trunk of the tree from which they
are carved. The native artist is almost always restrained by the
shape of the object to which the decoration is applied.
The technical perfection of carvings and paintings, the exactness
and daring of composition and lines prove that realistic representa-
1 The present chapter is a revised edition of my essay, “The Decorative Art of
the Indians of the North Pacific Coast of America” (Bulletin American Museum of
Natural History, Vol. IX, pp. 123—176, 1897).