National Museum of the American Indian George Gustav Heye Center
Robert Davidson: Abstract Impulse
April 12, 2014 – September 14, 2014
Approximately 45 works—paintings, prints, jewelry, and sculpture—explore the theme of abstraction as an extension of Haida art and philosophy. Organized by the NMAI and the Seattle Art Museum, this is the first major U.S. exhibition of works by Haida artist Robert Davidson, a pivotal figure in the Northwest Coast Native art renaissance since 1969, when he erected the first totem pole in his ancestral Massett village since the 1880s. For more than 40 years, Davidson has mastered Haida art traditions by studying the great works of his great-grandfather Charles Edenshaw and others. More recently, Davidson has interjected his own interpretation of the old forms with forays into abstraction, explored in boldly minimalistic easel paintings, graphic works, and sculpture, where images are pared to essential lines, elemental shapes, and strong colors.
