Sold for: $145,250

PROVENANCE
Private Collection, Vancouver

Robert Davidson is a West Coast First Nations artist of Haida and Tlingit descent. He comes from a well-known family of artists - his great grandfather was legendary Haida artist Charles Edenshaw, and his father Claude Davidson and grandfather Robert Davidson Sr. were respected carvers. Growing up in Masset, Haida Gwaii, Davidson began carving at a young age. He is now internationally renowned for his masks and totem poles, prints, paintings, jewellery and bronzes.

This superb work is a large-scale depiction in bronze of a dogfish, a common Haida crest. Dogfish, or shark, is a powerful and elusive supernatural being from Haida mythology, depicted with a high domed forehead, a down-turned mouth with sharp, pointed teeth and gill slits either side. Davidson has long had a fascination with the dogfish, and it was one of Davidson’s father’s crests. He has depicted the dogfish in numerous media - such as in print form in 1969, in a rattle from 1971 and in a series of six dogfish masks in the 1970s.

Traditionally, the dogfish crest was used in utilitarian items, as well as ceremonial clothing and regalia, but Davidson has taken it into the realm of sculpture on a different scale. In 1999 he produced a 6-foot high red cedar wall sculpture (in the Audain Art Museum Collection). In 2008, he produced this magnificent large-scale bronze, and it radiates a powerful presence. Sleek and stylized, Dogfish is an outstanding example of Davidson’s modern handling of traditional Haida motifs and his superb craftsmanship.

Davidson is a leading figure in the resurgence of Haida art and culture, for which he received the National Aboriginal Achievement Award in 1995. His works are in the collections of the National Gallery of Canada, the Canadian Museum of History, the Vancouver Art Gallery and the Southwest Museum in Los Angeles, among others. He has received the Order of British Columbia and in 1996 the Order of Canada. Davidson was the subject of the 2019 documentary film Haida Modern, directed by Charles Wilkinson.

This work is editioned IP which stands for Indian Proof. In most cases the artist would keep this edition for themselves.

All prices are in Canadian Dollars

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