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LOT 015

BCSFA CGP CSPWC OC RCA
1909 - 1998
Canadian

Bird Spirit
acrylic on canvas
signed and dated 1985 and on verso titled and dated on the gallery label
48 1/2 x 60 in, 123.2 x 152.4 cm

Estimate: $40,000 - $60,000 CAD

Sold for: $103,250

Preview at:

PROVENANCE
Bau-Xi Gallery, Vancouver
Acquired from the above by the present Private Collection, Seattle, January 29, 1987

LITERATURE
Marjorie M. Halpin, Jack Shadbolt and the Coastal Image, UBC Museum of Anthropology, 1986, pages 25 and 26, reproduced page 35 as well as the mask this painting is based on, collection of the Portland Art Museum, and listed pages 50 and 53

EXHIBITED
UBC Museum of Anthropology, Vancouver, Jack Shadbolt and the Coastal Image, June 17 - November 30, 1986


Jack Shadbolt’s fascination with Indigenous imagery began early in his career. His first teaching job was in Duncan, on Vancouver Island, from 1928 to 1930, and he sketched on the Cowichan Reserve nearby. In 1930, Shadbolt met Emily Carr in Victoria, and he later stated, “The Coast Indian is the nearest symbolic mythology to hand. Originally fired, I suppose, in my formative early years, by contact with Emily Carr.” While Carr traveled up the coast to sketch totems, Shadbolt sketched Indigenous artifacts in the BC Provincial Museum in Victoria; he made a 1935 drawing of two Kwakwaka’wakw masks and a Hamatsa rattle, and he also based sketches on images from books.

Over the decades, Shadbolt often returned to Indigenous images for his paintings. He stated, “The Indian mode of expressing things from inside out, out of deep interior identification with the spirit of the image portrayed, gave me my inventive impetus as well as helping me to my personal mode of abstraction.” In 1948, his powerful painting Red Knight (sold by Heffel in fall 1995) was based on his 1938 sketch of a Kwakwaka’wakw Numahl mask. In 1976, he produced the Coast Indian Suite, a 20-segment charcoal and coloured chalk mural. In the 1980s, he was delving deeply into Indigenous subjects again, and this part of his oeuvre was recognized in a 1986 exhibition at the Museum of Anthropology at the University of British Columbia.

This extraordinary painting from 1985 is based on a Kwakwaka’wakw mask from circa 1900. This mask is from the Portland Art Museum’s Rasmussen Collection of Northwest Coast Indian Art. The Axel Rasmussen collection, acquired in 1948, includes more than 8,000 objects, and has many fine examples of Northwest Coast art.

Masks such as this were ceremonial objects used in dance performances - when the string was pulled, it opened the mask, transforming the animal initially viewed into a human face, which could be an ancestor or a mythical being. The masked dancer would temporarily embody these ancestral entities and supernatural forces.

Shadbolt revealed in his journal, “In and out of my many years of off-and-on contact with Coast Indian art, I found myself in complete sympathy with the Kwagiutl [Kwakwaka’wakw] psychologically transformational decorative inventiveness.” In this painting, the main mask and its side panels are mostly faithful to the original, although no evidence of the string remains, and Shadbolt has replaced the original large raven headdress over the main mask with a small black cormorant (a fishing bird whose habitat is on the coast). Another cormorant rises upwards towards the other from what appears to be vegetation below. Shadbolt also introduced new panels covered in Indigenous motifs to the left and below the right panel, and changed or deepened some colours. He set the mask in the landscape, and the addition of the living birds gives a sense of scale - their smallness makes the mask seem monumental. These additions and changes bring the mask to life, as if Shadbolt had used shamanic powers to awaken it. The concept of the shaman appealed to the artist, for it made him, in his own words, “realize myself as part of nature, a creator of magic by the process of juggling forms which come alive and [become] mysterious as they interact their creative necessities into unpredictable meanings.” Bird Spirit embodies this ethos, as Shadbolt created a powerful and arresting image.


Estimate: $40,000 - $60,000 CAD

All prices are in Canadian Dollars


Although great care has been taken to ensure the accuracy of the information posted, errors and omissions may occur. All bids are subject to our Terms and Conditions of Business. Bidders must ensure they have satisfied themselves with the condition of the Lot prior to bidding. Condition reports are available upon request.