UNKNOWN FOLK ARTIST
Mixed Media Tufted Rug with Northwest Coast Designs, c. 1960s
tufted rug, appliquéd painted tufted rugs, hide, wood, ceramic, copper, cotton fabric, and cotton thread, 129 x 80 in (327.7 x 203.2 cm), without fringe
unsigned.

Provenance
Important Private Collection, Pittsburgh, PA.

A truly unusual piece of Northwest Coast outsider/folk art. This large, tufted artwork is most likely non-Native in manufacture, but it is definitely the work of someone who loved Northwest Coast art and was an avid reader on the subject. The overall shape of this piece references a frontlet or forehead mask, with green, red, and beige tufted rectangles representing abalone inlays and two hand painted and appliqued totem poles serving as borders. The totem poles seem to be drawn from steamship illustrations from the early 20th century and to be someone’s fanciful (but not entirely accurate) iterations of the Seattle totem pole in Pioneer Square. The main image of the artwork appears to be the artist’s tufted rug version of a Nisga’a formline house screen, or perhaps a giant version of a Tlingit humanoid figure from a frontlet. Whoever the artist was, they actually did a pretty good job of creating formline images of salmon-trout heads and human faces through the tufting process.

However, this artwork only gets stranger and more interesting the more time you spend with it. Distributed throughout the body of the main figure are painted and appliqued images – on bits of wood and other pieces of rug – of iconic Northwest Coast pieces, many of which are identifiable as being from the covers of books on the subject. In the eyes of the main figure are two pairs of a mask that appeared on the cover of Indian Art in America (1961) by Frederick Dockstader. On the bridge of the main figure’s nose is a black bird rattle, and on the nostrils are Northern-style raven rattles. On the chest is a large, painted wood sun mask, and in the palms of the outstretched hands are images of the circling killer whales drum that was used on the back cover of Art in the Life of the Northwest Coast Indians (1966) by Erna Gunther. On each of the legs of the main figure are images of a Tlingit medicine man mask that was used on the cover of Craft Horizons Magazine from the July/August 1961 issue, and below those are painted and appliqued images of a Tlingit humanoid bird figure from the cover of Native Arts of the Pacific Northwest (1949) by Robert Tyler Davis and the Portland Art Museum. In the centre between the legs of the main figure are three more painted and appliqued masks and in the eyes of the salmon-trout head designs are a pair of transformation masks. All of these images are almost certainly from the covers of books as well, but I’ll leave that to the buyer to explore and discover. Hanging from the tufted main rug are deer hide thongs with handmade porcelain baubles that mirror the shape and texture of deer hooves. Deer hooves would normally hang from an apron to create more movement and noise while dancing. An extremely unique and fascinating piece of folk art!

Christopher W. Smith