Curator & Collector

Raven and Whale, taken from the 2010 Roy Henry Vickers calendar

In the previous six posts, we looked at the various formal elements of the aboriginal art of the northwest coast. These included shapes: ovoids, U-forms, split U-forms, and S-forms. We also saw how the form lines (in black) create negative white shapes, often crescents, circles, T- and Y-shapes. Additionally, we learned that the secondary colour in traditional First Nations art is red. Finally, we learned the distinguishing characteristics of several key animals.

And so we have Roy Henry Vickers’ 1979 work, Raven and Whale. The most basic shape, the ovoid, is immediately apparent in the shape on the raven’s wings, and around its eye, although the form-line does not enclose the whole shape. U forms and split U-forms exist throughout the work, for example, in the wings, underneath the ovoids. Additionally, S-forms are ubiquitous, usually red-coloured (e.g., in the bodies of the raven and the whale).

The use of negative space is also quite important, and traditional; again, we have the circles (the whale’s eye), and in his tale, and the raven’s talons; the crescents (in the raven’s eye and his tongue), and the T- or Y-shapes (e.g. at the top of the joint in the raven’s left wing). Finally, we have the presence of the distinguishing features of the whale: many teeth, a tail with two flukes, and pectoral and dorsal fins. The raven is characterized by means of his wings, and especially by his long beak, which shows his tongue. (Additionally, although I cannot be certain, it may be that the negative white shape at the tip of his beak above his tongue is a stylized circle representing the sun (alternatively, it may represent air, or something I am unaware of.)

In Raven and Whale, then, what we have is two animals depicted in the traditional shapes, lines, colours, and characteristics of the art of the First Nations of the northwest coast. Perhaps less traditional is the juxtaposition–not on a three-dimensional totem pole, but on a two-dimensional canvas–of the raven and whale. The whale appears to have just broken the surface of the water, and is now diving below. The raven appears to be sitting on him for the fraction of a second that he can. The artist’s text in the calendar relates that this artwork was a golden wedding anniversary present from a young artist who was having “difficulty” understanding how the two individuals in question had been able to remain together. Certainly, the artwork fits the occasion and the circumstances of a wedding anniversary in a world of divorce. Opposites attract, but how do they stay together?

I must admit that this inspired, wondering meditation on love and marriage is my favourite of Vickers’ early works.

Although the image appears traditional to anyone with even the smallest familiarity with First Nations art, it is helpful to be able to identify the traditional forms and characteristics that Vickers has made use of here. It is even more interesting to me, though, to see many of these same formal elements of traditional aboriginal northwest coast art in the post-traditional Vickers, the subject of the next two posts.

(Note: by “post-traditional,” I do not being “nontraditional”; as we shall see, even when Vickers does not appear “traditional,” he makes use of traditional artistic elements. Furthermore, even after the transition from exclusively traditional works to the works that he is best known for, Vickers still chose to create purely traditional art.)