Hill pointed to one image of three frogs, noting that at this time, the artist was copying the old masters and coming to grips with their traditions.įrom there, according to Hill, Davidson demonstrated an “incredible ability to innovate within that visual language”.ĭavidson then revealed that in 1981, he started to paint on drums. The first section of the exhibition features some of Davidson’s early prints. Then he mentioned how inspired he is by the next generation.Īt that point, Hill interjected to say: “They have a head start because of the work people like you did.” Robert Davidson, Untitled, 2013, acrylic on canvas, Courtesy of the Artist, Photo: Kenji Nagai Exhibition shows artist’s evolution He added that he’s so happy that his people are now free. “That’s how much we were controlled by the Indian Act.” “I didn’t hear the story until, actually, just recently,” Davidson revealed. He didn’t realize at the time that members of his grandparents’ generation feared going to jail for doing this. It was the first one raised in his village in early 90 years. “That’s how far removed we were.”Īt the age of 22, Davidson carved a totem pole in Masset. There was not mention of any of our Haida songs at all in the schools,” he said. “One of the first Native songs we were taught in elementary was ‘One little, two little, three little Indians’. During the tour, Davidson revealed that he heard his first Haida song at the age of 16. This enabled Davidson and others to relearn art and its meaning through ceremony and dance. “But fortunately, we had a strong connection to our grandparents’ generation.” “My parents’ generation suffered for that blow of not knowing where they came from,” Davidson said. Many thousands died before they could ever graduate whereas countless others endured horrific abuse. The government also banned various cultural activities.Īround 150,000 Indigenous children went through these schools over more than a century. Starting in the 1880s, the state seized kids from their homes across the country and forced them to live in church-run institutions to purge them of their heritage.
The residential school system and draconian Indian Act regulations nearly obliterated that knowledge. The puzzle was really to regain the knowledge of my grandparents’ generation.”
“We were born to bring back the puzzle,” Davidson said. A group of his contemporaries had to study old masters’ works in museums. In his introductory remarks, Davidson revealed that when he was a child, there was no art in his community of Masset on Haida Gwai. Robert Davidson, Occupied, 2007, screenprint on paper, Collection of the Vancouver Art Gallery, Gift of the Artist Davidson part of Northwest Coast revival “It also signals two really important colours in traditional Haida visual colours-black and red-which are also themes that run through the show,” Hill added. Hill told reporters that this piece highlights the history and relationship of the graphic tradition in Haida art to carving.
It begins with a single carved work on the title wall. The VAG’s Smith-Jarislowsky senior curator of Canadian art, Richard Hill, and associate curator Mandy Ginson selected and arranged the artworks. His Haida name, G uud Sans Glans, means “Eagle of the Dawn”, which helps explain the exhibition’s title. The new exhibition, entitled Guud sans glans Robert Davidson: A Line That Bends But Does Not Break, includes prints and paintings spanning decades. “Holy shit-it’s time to take a day off,” Davidson quipped, eliciting enormous laughter. Haida artist and elder Robert Davidson certainly hasn’t lost his sense of humour.ĭuring a recent media tour at the Vancouver Art Gallery, the famed painter, printmaker, and carver remarked on how it felt to see so much of his art in one location.
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