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Parade and Spontoon Tomahawk were featured in the Burke Museum’s 1992 exhibition of Holm‘s paintings–Indians of the Plains, Plateau and Northwest Coast: Paintings by Bill Holm–and subsequently exhibited at Stonington Gallery. In each painting we experience the instantly-recognizable and yet unquantifiable mark of excellence. The love, skill and respect with which each work is conceived and created gives them an emotional presence and power born from Holm‘s lifelong passion for the Native cultures of the American West.
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| For those unfamiliar with this iconic figure of the Northwest Coast, Holm–Emeritus of Art History, and Curator Emeritus of Northwest Coast Indian Art at the Burke Museum–is recognized internationally as one of the most knowledgeable experts in the field of Northwest Coast Native art history. Born in 1925, and continuing to work today, he published his seminal book Northwest Coast Indian Art, An Analysis of Form in 1965. This book is credited with having drawn a remarkable number of artists into their own practice of Northwest Coast art, and his classes at the University of Washington broadened the understanding and appreciation of that art in several generations of students.
The Native American Art Studies Association recognized him with its Honor Award in 1991. The UW honored him with a Distinguished Achievement Award from the College of Arts and Sciences in 1994 and selected him to give the annual University Faculty Lecture in 2003. In 2001 he was given a certificate of appreciation from the Tlingit, Haida, and Tsimshian people of Southeast Alaska through the Sealaska Heritage Institute.
Today, the Bill Holm Center for the Study of Northwest Native Art at the Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture in Seattle is one of the premiere centers for the study of Native arts of the Northwest. Their mission is to help all people better understand and connect with Northwest Native art. It helps facilitates education about Northwest Native art and, through research grants, public programs, online resources and publications, supports research about and access to the Native art collections at the Burke. |
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PARADE – 1988
Framed Acrylic on Canvas 28” x 40”
$40,000
“Parade”, one of Holm‘s most beloved images, shows a Nez Perce man and woman on horseback in full, accurate regalia. Even prints are difficult to come by of “Parade”, as most were gifted to the Nez Perce tribe by Holm.
A Nez Perce woman and man in their finest dress and horse gear, ride in the sun and dust to a celebration in the late nineteenth century. Many of the objects, however, are family heirlooms, dating back many decades. The woman’s dress of softly tanned mountain sheep skins, heavily embroidered with pony beads, is of the style of the mid-century. Some of these very early dresses are still in use among Plateau people. Her horse’s headstall and its hand-forged Mexican bit are of the same period, as are her companion’s pony-beaded shirt and leggings, with their long, porcupine quill wrapped fringes.
 A pair of large, tapered, cylindrical cases of painted rawhide with trailing fringes of heavy buckskin, sometimes called war bonnet cases, hangs on the sides of her parade horse, over a thickly fringed and beaded double saddlebag. Her blanket strip and saddle are of a style made also by the Crows and may have been traded from them. However, Plateau people had them in profusion and probably made many of them, as well as elaborate horse collars of the Crow type. This one is a distinctively Plateau variant on that style. The pony-bead dress and basketry hat is uniquely Plateau.
Although also seen on the northern plains, the striking horse mask of beaded trade cloth and feathers was a more frequent sight of festive occasions on the Plateau warriors in the nineteenth century. Many of them were of the upright type like this one, with broad brow-bands of simple design and a profusion of dyed hackle feathers and ermine fringes.
Sun Dogs and Eagle Down: The Indian Paintings of Bill Holm by Steven C. Brown, with a chronology and bibliography by Lloyd J. Averill and with captions by Bill Holm; plate 9.
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SPONTOON TOMAHAWK – 1989
Framed Acrylic on Board 54” x 36”
$37,000
In an Eastern Plateau tule-mat longhouse, a prominent man speaks in council about the accomplishments of his grandfather, whose old-time spontoon tomahawk he carries. Although the tomahawk is a trade piece from the beginning of the nineteenth century, the setting here is about 1870. The speaker wears an ermine-trimmed bonnet with wooden, tack-studded horns. His fringed shirt is of an early style, with shoulder and sleeve strips of quill-wrapped horsehair. Panel leggings with beaded strips in the trans-montane style, pony-beaded moccasins, and a plaid woolen breechclout complete his dress. The listeners, seated on tule mats and robes, are dressed in Plateau style of the latter part of the century.
 This spontoon tomahawk is based on one in the Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture, collected near the Dalles on the Columbia River. Lewis and Clark described and illustrated tomahawks of this kind, which the expedition blacksmith made in large numbers for the Indians who visited the explorers’ winter camp at Fort Mandan on the Missouri River. The tomahawks were in great demand, and their trade was an important source of corn for the expedition members. The journals speak disparagingly of the battle axes: “The length of the blade compared with the shortness of the handle render it a weapon of very little strength, particularly as it is always used on horseback: there is still however another form which is even worse, the same sort of handle being fixed to a blade resembling an espontoon.”
Sun Dogs and Eagle Down: The Indian Paintings of Bill Holm by Steven C. Brown, p. 108
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THE SPANISH BROAD SWORD – 1998
Framed Acrylic on Linen 27.5” x 18.5”
$17,000
The early decades of the nineteenth century were a period of elaboration in the festival dress of the people of the Plains. The Crow and their Hidatsa kinsmen were especially known for the elegance of their appearance. Men who were successful in war displayed their accomplishments by means of military insignia and a record of their exploits painted on their clothing. Here, a brave man wears a shirt and leggings and carries a buffalo robe, all emblazoned with pictographic evidence of deeds, recording his capture of weapons, defeat of enemies, leadership, and generosity.
 He carries an antique Spanish cavalry broad sword from the colonies in the Southwest, which, like the horse and its gear, has made its way through warfare or intertribal trade to the upper Missouri country. That it is an honorable weapon is shown by the fan of eagle feathers hung from the pommel and the four painted representations of the sword on his shirt, one of which can be seen just above the quilled blanket strip.
The paintings on the shirt, leggings, and robe of this proud warrior are examples of the work of a single, unknown artist whose distinctive style of pictography sets him apart from his contemporaries. The shirt and leggings he wears are from the collection in the Opocno Castle in the Czech Republic, and his buffalo robe is in the National Museum of Denmark. All three are embellished with bands of quillwork, in multi-quill plaiting and in single and double bundle quill-wrapped horsehair, bordered with beads.
Sun Dogs and Eagle Down: The Indian Paintings of Bill Holm by Steven C. Brown; p.180 |
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