(This new edition of a collaboration between one of the fi...)
This new edition of a collaboration between one of the finest living artists in North America and one of Canada's finest poets includes a new introduction by the distinguished anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss. Ten masterful, complex drawings by Bill Reid and ten tales demonstrate the richness and range of Haida mythology, from bawdy yet profound tales of the trickster Raven to poignant, imagistic narratives of love and its complications in a world where animals speak, dreams come real, and demigods, monsters, and men live side by side.
Bill Reid was an internationally recognized Haida artist, whose works include jewelry, sculpture, screen-printing, and paintings. He is frequently credited with the revival and innovative resurgence of Northwest Coast Indigenous arts in the contemporary world.
Background
Bill Reid, born William Ronald Reid Jr., was born on January 12, 1920, in Victoria, Canada. He was the son of a Haida mother, Sophie Gladstone, from Skidegate Mission, Queen Charlotte Islands, and a Scottish-German American father, William Ronald Reid. During his childhood his family made several moves between Victoria and Hyder, Alaska; he later lived in Vancouver, British Columbia.
Reid was raised entirely in the European/North American society of his father; as a teenager, he first became aware of his Haida heritage. In 1943, when Reid was in his early twenties, he got to know his maternal grandfather, Charles Gladstone, the last in a direct line of Haida silversmiths who had learned their craft from their elders.
Education
His maternal grandfather first taught Reid about Haida art, and through him, Bill inherited his tools from his great-great-uncle Charles Edenshaw, a renowned artist who died the year Reid was born.
Reid enrolled in a jewelry-making course offered by the Ryerson Polytechnical Institute (present-day Ryerson University). There, he spent two years studying conventional European jewelry techniques, followed by a partial apprenticeship at the Platinum Art Company. In 1968 Reid spent a year at the Central School of Art and Design in London, England, on a Canada Council senior fellowship to improve his goldsmithing techniques.
Reid received honorary doctoral degrees from the University of British Columbia, University of Victoria, Simon Fraser University, and other schools as well.
Bill Reid's artistic career was preceded by a career in public broadcasting, first in commercial radio, and from 1948 until 1958 with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC). Before leaving CBC, he wrote and narrated a television documentary that explored Totem Poles of the Queen Charlotte Islands and narrated a film documenting the "People of Potlach" Exhibition at the Vancouver Art Gallery.
He returned to the Canadian west coast in 1951 to establish himself as a designer of contemporary jewelry. On a subsequent trip to the Queen Charlotte Islands, however, he saw a pair of bracelets engraved by Charles Edenshaw and decided to devote his creative energies to Haida jewelry, applying the European techniques he had learned.
Upon his return to Canada, he set up a workshop in Montreal and remained in that city for three years. His London experience strongly influenced all his subsequent production, which included pieces of both Haida and contemporary international design.
Highly acclaimed works created during this period included his gold and diamond necklace (1969), the gold "Beaver, Human, and Killerwhale Box" (1971), the gold "Bear Mother Dish" (1972), and the intricate boxwood carving, "The Raven Discovering Mankind in a Clamshell" (1970). The 4.5-ton cedar version of the latter carving was completed ten years later for the University of British Columbia (UBC) Museum of Anthropology ("The Raven and the First Men," 1980).
In 1958 Reid was commissioned by UBC to recreate a section of a Haida village, including two houses and seven poles. This allowed him to quit his broadcasting career and devote full time to his art. Haida Village was completed in 1962 with the assistance of Kwagulth carver Douglas Cranmer. In 1978 Reid completed a 17-meter totem pole for the new Skidegate band council office, Queen Charlotte Islands. It was the first pole to be raised in his mother's village in more than a century. Reid's 15.2-meter ocean-going cedar canoe, Lootas ("Wave Eater"), was launched in 1986, and in 1989 it was paddled up the Seine River to be exhibited at the Musee de l'Homme in Paris, France.
Among his large bronze works is "The Spirit of Haida Gwaii," also called "The Black Canoe "(1991), at the Canadian Embassy in Washington, D. C. In creating his large sculptures, Reid utilized the skilled assistance of other Haida and non-Haida carvers and specialists, most notably sculptor George Rammell.
Through the 1990 Reid continued to be recognized for his tireless efforts to preserve the Haida art form.
He continued writing about Haida folklore and co-authored "The Raven Steals the Light: Native American Tales" (1996).
(This new edition of a collaboration between one of the fi...)
1996
painting
Haida Dog Fish
1972
Haida Grizzly Bear
Haida Raven
1972
Haida Beaver
1973
sculpture
Raven and the First Men
1980
Spirit of Haida Gwaii
1986
Haida bear
1988
Views
Reid was an eloquent and outspoken proponent of Indigenous rights in Canada. He was especially active in the battle to preserve the national and cultural history of South Moresby in Haida Gwaii.
His acceptance as an artist 20th-century demonstrated the extent to which Haida iconography became for him a means of personal expression, no longer belonging only to the past. His growing concern with social and environmental issues, particularly those affecting native peoples' self-determination, also found expression in his art and in his many publications.
Personality
Ambitious and driven, Reid still managed to bring global recognition to Haida art through his savvy understanding of the media, as well as the ability to charm wealthy donors and collectors.
Connections
In 1981, Bill married Martine de Widerspach-Thor (Mormanne), a French anthropologist.