Innovations in Ink

Robert Davidson is among the most acclaimed Canadian artists in both sculpture and graphics.   He has produced over 150 editions of prints since 1969.   His prints have been included in numerous solo exhibitions as well as survey exhibitions documenting innovations in Northwest Coast prints.  He has received every possible award and honour that can be bestowed upon a Canadian artist including the Order of Canada, The Royal Canadian Academy of Arts, The Order of British Columbia and the Audain Prize.  

 

Robert Davidson was first introduced to the work of an anonymous master artist during the assembly of the exhibition Arts of the Raven, hosted by the Vancouver Art Gallery in 1967.   Two pieces, a painted bentwood box from the collection of the Museum of Natural History in New York and a carved and painted bowl from the collection of the Glenbow Museum in Calgary, were deemed to be the same hand by the curators, Wilson Duff and Bill Reid – this artist was given the name “Master of the Black Field” for his stylistic innovations including creating a large shape within the form of the object and designing into this shape as well as the surrounding negative space.  This artist and style would influence Davidson as he experimented with designs and particularly with bringing large internal shapes to life.  

During the early 1980’s, Davidson would commit seriously to creating original paintings.  In Masset he hosted the event “Tribute to the Living Haida” in 1980 and the Potlatch “Laa Git’alaag Isiss – Children of the Good People” in 1981 and he designed and painted numerous drums for presentation and to encourage people to learn the old songs.   Following these events, he began a series of large-scale paintings, many with large internal shapes, which were featured in a solo exhibition at the Maple Ridge Art Gallery (see First Arts, 12 June 2023, Lot 50 for an example of one of these original artworks). 

 

Five of the paintings were sold as a set as well as being designated to become limited edition serigraph prints.   The prints were the same scale as the paintings and with the Davidson quote, “it was time to take the print out of the back bedroom and put it in the living room.”  

The five prints were released in 1983 but only Every Year the Salmon Come Back with its more classical shapes found a receptive audience.  The remaining prints were pulled from the market. 

 

This was a particularly busy time for Robert Davidson with international totem pole commissions and several commissions related to Expo ’86 in Vancouver.  Following Expo '86, the audience for Northwest Coast Art was dramatically stronger and the prints were re-released and very quickly sold out.  Over the next decade the demand would continue to grow and these prints rate among the most sought after Northwest Coast prints.  

 

In 1993, Robert Davidson was honoured with a full retrospective exhibition titled Robert Davidson – Eagle of the Dawn at the Vancouver Art Gallery, documented with a full hardcover catalogue.  Davidson was only 47 but had been a self-supporting artist since his teenage years. He had amassed a large body of work, introduced numerous personal innovations, and set the highest possible standard for the modern art form. The exhibition was the largest attended opening in the history of the gallery.  Davidson produced six new paintings specifically for the exhibition; three of these paintings were the basis for three new prints which were released months later.  They combined a blend of many of his personal innovations to the art form including classic Formline design, bold abstraction and ghost forms which reference a third dimension – the supernatural realm.  The prints had a set release date and Eye of the Beholder was sold out within a few hours, Double Negative was sold out by mid afternoon, and The World as Sharp as the Edge of a Knife had only a few remaining at the end of the day.  The prints were often viewed as a series that collectively captured Davidson’s mastery of Northwest Coast design.  Eye of the Beholder has rarely appeared on the secondary market.  

– Gary Wyatt

The five prints representing Robert Davidson's distinctive artistic journey encapsulate his far-reaching influence. His stylistic evolution, beginning with his earliest inspirations drawn from the "Master of the Black Field," and leading to his revolutionary shift in scale and design, weaves a unique narrative throughout his printed work. The journey of four of his now iconic prints – initially met with market indifference and subsequent withdrawal before finally achieving triumphant resurgence – infuses these pieces with a historical significance that continues to appreciate. Likewise, the rapid sell-out and enduring rarity of Eye of the Beholder in the secondary market underline its significance as an embodiment of Davidson's artistic mastery and influence in Northwest Coast design. Taken together all, these five works stand not only as a testament to Davidson's courageous experimentation in art, but also as critical landmarks in the transition of Northwest Coast Art's perception.