We, the Indian artist, must be allowed to create. We must be allowed new and modern techniques... new and modern tools... new and modern materials.

Ellen Neel

Keynote Address for the first B.C. Arts and Welfare Society Conference, University of British Columbia — April 1948

Kwakwa̱ka̱ʼwakw artist Ḵaḵaso’las, Ellen Neel (1916-1966) is known as a pioneering female Northwest Coast carver and entrepreneur. Trained by her grandfather Yakuglas, Charlie James (c.1867-1938) (see lot 59) and mentored by her uncle Mungo Martin, Chief Nakaṕankam (1881-1962) (see lots 33, 42, and 59), she not only produced large scale crest poles in Stanley Park but also innovated forms and materials to create new commercial products, including model poles, silkscreen scarves, and porcelain tableware. She established her own business and retail store, Totem Art Studios, and transformed Indigenous cultural forms for the tourist market.

This mixed-media work on panel is a unique example of her innovative artistic spirit. A cedar model pole and illusionistic plaster rocks have been affixed to a brushily painted forest background. The natural wood grain surface of the pole recalls her highly sought-after unpainted masks, whose natural wood grain and organically curving surfaces deploy a modernist emphasis on materiality. Neel utilized a technique for such masks in which she charred the wood then scrubbed it with a wire brush to reveal the gradations in the grain, and used a similar technique for select few model poles and wood sculptures. Here, the technique evokes a weathered pole in situ, appealing to the diorama-like nature of the assemblage.

The pole itself seems to emerge from a halo of white clouds or smoke and the painted background, emulating the romantic post-impressionistic style of Emily Carr, seems to suggest a timeless scene of wonder. Yet the work’s techniques—broad unfinished brushstrokes, stark materiality, and innovative combination of mediums—declare its modernity.

The painting may have been influenced by or made in collaboration with Neel’s son, Tla’tla’klalis, David L. Neel (1937-1961), who was among the first Kwakwa̱ka̱ʼwakw artists to enroll in formal Euro-Canadian fine art training through painting classes at the Vancouver Art Gallery. Like the present example, his work in the late 1950s combined Euro-Canadian painting conventions with Kwakwa̱ka̱ʼwakw subject matter, including a celebrated image of a dancer and crest pole that appeared on the cover of The Native Voice in 1958 [1]. Totem Art Studios was a full family affair, and this extraordinary work from Neel’s oeuvre confirms her and her family’s importance as key figures in the history of modern Northwest Coast Native art.

Christopher T. Green

1. The now-famous photograph of Ḵaḵaso’las, Ellen Neel in her studio captures the artist at work, with a copy of The Native Voice, illustrated with David Neel’s painting, visible on the table beside her. See Gar Lunney, Ellen Neel at work in her studio, 1958. Library and Archives Canada / National Film Board fonds, e011176933.

Christopher T. Green, Ph.D. is a New York-area based writer and scholar whose research, teaching, and curating focus has included modern and contemporary Native North American art and material culture, and the global representation and display of Indigenous art and culture. His current research focuses on contemporary Tlingit art and the interrelation of 20th century Northwest Coast Native art and Euro-American modernism. He currently serves as visiting assistant professor of Art History and Environmental Studies at Swarthmore College.