Fatal Consumption
Reconstructing History in Northwest Coast Art
University of British Columbia Press
Published on 30. June 2000
Book
Hardback
978-0-7748-0753-1 (ISBN)
Description
What makes Northwest Coast Native American art authentic? And why, when most of art history is a history of the avant-garde, is tradition so deeply valued by contemporary Native American artists and their patrons? In Privileging the Past Judith Ostrowitz approaches these questions through a careful consideration of replicas, reproductions, and creative translations of past forms of Northwest Coast dances, ceremonies, masks, painted screens, and houses. Ostrowitz examines several different art forms -- two very different architectural constructions, a dance performance, and modern sculptures and dance paraphernalia -- considering their relations to arts of the past. Ostrowitz draws on an extensive body of interviews she conducted with tribal leaders, artists, and artisans long known and highly respected in both Native and non-Native venues. Throughout the book, we hear their voices -- members of the Alfred, Cranmer, Hunt, Tallio and Webster families, and many other individuals -- as they relate their responses to the modern adaptation of their cultural heritage.
Privileging the Past explores intellectual issues raised by postmodern theory, supported by detailed studies of projects that will interest a boad audience of students, historians, museum-goers, and those intrigued by Native American art and cultural history.
Privileging the Past explores intellectual issues raised by postmodern theory, supported by detailed studies of projects that will interest a boad audience of students, historians, museum-goers, and those intrigued by Native American art and cultural history.
Reviews / Votes
Ostrowitz's emphasis on how Natives of the Northwest Coast continually reconstruct history in their visual culture is an important contribution to the fields of art history, anthropology and Native studies. -- Lianne McTavish AcadiensisMore details
Language
English
Place of publication
Vancouver
Canada
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Illustrations
Illustrations (some col.), ports. (some col.)
Dimensions
Height: 254 mm
Width: 204 mm
ISBN-13
978-0-7748-0753-1 (9780774807531)
Copyright in bibliographic data is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or its licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Judith Ostrowitz is an art historian and mixed media artist living in New York. She is a lecturer at Yale University, has taught at Columbia University, and is a former assistant curator at the Brooklyn Museum of Art. Among her publications is a contribution to Chiefly Feasts: The Enduring Kwakiutl Potlatch.
Content
Foreword by Nelson Graburn Preface Introduction 1. Expedience and Classicism at the Chief Shakes Community House 2. The Map and the Territory in the Grand Hall at the Canadian Museum of Civilization 3. Making Dance History: Kwakwaka'wakw Performance Art at the American Museum of Natural History . False Cognates: Looking Backward at the Latest Thing in Contemporary Northwest Coast Art 5. The Style in Which They Were Imagined Notes References Index