Tsa-qua-sup, Art Thompson is a Ditidaht Nuu-chah-nulth artist from the village of Whyac on Nitinat Lake on the west coast of Vancouver Island. His childhood was interrupted with hospitalization for tuberculosis followed by forced enrollment in residential school, where he was severely abused. He would later become a prominent spokesperson for justice for residential school survivors. Despite years away from home, he was influenced by the cultural teachings of his grandfather, and at fourteen he was initiated into the high ranking Tlukwana Wolf Society. Thompson became a logger at a young age but was injured by a falling tree, which forced him to revalue his future. He enrolled at Camosun College in Victoria, and later at the Emily Carr Institute in Vancouver to study printmaking and sculpture. Thompson had an early understanding of Nuu-chah-nulth forms, and he was a natural born designer. His series of prints produced early in his career, now referred to as the “Seafood Series,” are among the most collected Northwest Coast prints. Together with the prints of Joe David, Ron Hamilton, and Tim Paul, they established a powerful presence in the art market, defined new directions for Nuu-chah-nulth art, and found an enthusiastic collector base. Art Thompson would create a legacy for innovative graphics and sculpture including masks, totem poles, rattles, and puppets. His fluid designs rendered in precise, sharp lines, continue to influence the styles of emerging artists. In 1995 Thompson was chosen to carve a totem pole for Stanford University to commemorate the first indigenous graduate from that university. He died in 2003 at the age of fifty-six, after several years of battling cancer.

This Sun Mask features two flanking wolves and an eagle painted on the forehead. Large-scale Sun Masks were frequently handheld above a screen. The mask is dressed with copper, horsehair, metal tacks, and mirrors which capture the reflective light of the sun.

Gary Wyatt