MONUMENTAL KILLER WHALE CLAN MEMORIAL FIGURE

Kwakiutl people, Coastal British Columbia, Canada

Last quarter of the 19th century

Red Cedar wood, natural pigments, hand forged metal bracket

Height: 87 inches (221 cm)

Provenance: Private collection - Santa Barbara, California.

Art Loss Register certificate #S00258363

The Kwakiutl historically lived along the shorelines of northern Vancouver Island and the adjacent coastal mainland, in a region of dramatic fjords and inlets, and innumerable smaller islands.Kwakiutl ceremonial life was extremely elaborate, sophisticated, and complex and was based upon an equally elaborate mythology that reflected and reinforced the Kwakiutl world view. Kwakiutl creation myths, known as transformation stories, tell of ancient ancestors traveling the world transforming nature or themselves into new beings, some taking off their animal masks to reveal their human selves. These ancestors imparted their animal masks as crests for their numaym – or clan lineages, thus identifying the primary clans with specific animals, including the raven, wolf, bear, and killer whale.

Portraying an ancestral Kwakiutl chief of the Gispwudwada or killer whale clan, this remarkable life-sized sculpture served as an important memorial figure, erected in a place of prominence inside the sacred clan house.  The killer whale was an eminent and revered character in Kwakiutl cosmology and was itself thought to be an important chief in the undersea marine world, where these powerful beings enlisted porpoises and sea lions as servants and spiritual messengers to the human world.  Beautifully carved from red cedar wood by a Kwakiutl master carver, the ancestral figure is depicted clenching a speaker’s staff surmounted by a pair of finely rendered horned owl totems. A symbol of authority and status, speaker’s staffs were wielded by high-ranking Kwakiutl chiefs during formal speeches and potlatch ceremonies, helping to emphasize their words with coordinated gestures.

The figure dons a ceremonial dance cape, specific to the Killer Whale dance, that is decorated at the lower borders by a pair of killer whales. These dance capes, of a distinctive style shared by the Kwakiutl people and their Tsimshian neighbors, were traditionally fashioned from dark blue woolen trade blankets, adorned with hundreds of mother-of-pearl buttons, cleverly arranged in zoomorphic motifs by Kwakiutl artists and framed by a sewn border of bright red trade cloth.  The cape of the figure is painted with an application of Prussian Blue, an early trade pigment brought to the Northwest Coast by European traders in the early 19th century. The pigment has oxidized to a pitch-dark hue over the centuries and provides contrast to the traditional red borders of the cape. The ancestral chief is portrayed wearing an extraordinary maxinuxw or killer whale mask, rendered in a breaching form with prominently raised dorsal fin; its arched body carved in relief upon elegantly carved ear coverings that were traditionally fashioned from flexible animal hide or wool fabric. Revealed during winter potlatch ceremonies; these sacred masks were worn by initiated dancers who skillfully imitated the swimming and breaching actions of the killer whale while moving rhythmically on the communal dance floor. The masks also served as potent embodiments of the killer whale’s spirit and provided the dancers direct communication with the spirit through their dance performance. Visually supporting the mask, the chief’s visage is sensitively carved reflecting a noble countenance, an application of light blue Vivianite mineral pigment boldly highlighting the central face and eyes, and below a mustache and beard are evident, neatly trimmed in Kwakiutl fashion.  The ancestral chief’s ensemble of finely carved ceremonial regalia, so rich in Kwakiutl mythological imagery, and the rare life-sized aspect of the sculpture together lend a supernatural, yet compellingly real and powerful presence to this memorial figure of the Killer Whale clan…a noble emissary from another time, another world.

Note: Like other important Kwakiutl monumental sculpture, the back of the figure has been skillfully hollowed out, a technique used by the master carvers to minimize stress cracks, thereby extending the life of the sculpture. At some point during its long history, the sculpture likely sustained some erosion near the bottom where in extended contact with the earthen floor of the clan house and was subsequently mounted atop a square base also of red cedar, using hand forged metal brackets, and painted by a 19th century Kwakiutl artist.