Iljuwas Bill Reid

Bill Reid received several solo exhibitions, beginning with the Vancouver Art Gallery in 1974. In the 1970s and 1980s, he was also included in group exhibitions of Indigenous artists, such as The Legacy: Tradition and Innovation in Northwest Coast Indian Art in 1971, an ethnographically curated exhibition, thematized along linguistic boundaries, that brought together artists from the West Coast of Canada. During these decades, Indigenous and non-Indigenous artworks were not shown together in major exhibitions. They were perceived as being at odds with one another: the systemic boundaries within the art institutions were based on a long-standing perception that Indigenous art was the domain of the ethnology museum. Recent decades have found opportunities for dialogue and bridge-building. As an example, works by the late Kwakwaka’wakw artist Beau Dick, who worked within strict community ethical principles, have appeared in international exhibitions such as the 18th Biennale of Sydney (2012) and documenta 14 (2017). Perhaps, in his day, Reid might have been the one to break out of the ethnographic sphere. Like many others, he was a catalyst for those who come after.

Bill Reid seated beside *The Raven and the First Men* at the UBC Museum of Anthropology, Vancouver, c.1980, photograph by William McLennan.

Bill Reid and James Hart standing on either side of a large wooden door, designed by Reid and carved by Hart, 1980, photograph by William McLennan.

Key Solo Exhibitions

1974

Bill Reid: A Retrospective Exhibition, Vancouver Art Gallery.

1980

Bill Reid Retrospective, Children of the Raven Gallery, Vancouver.

1986

Bill Reid: Beyond the Essential Form, University of British Columbia Museum of Anthropology, Vancouver.

1993

Bill Reid, Miriam Shiell Fine Art Ltd., Toronto.

1994

Retrospective exhibition, Néprajzi Múzeum, Budapest.

1997

Bill Reid, Canadian Embassy Gallery, Tokyo. Retrospective exhibition.

1998

The Spirit of Haida Gwaii: Art Exhibit and Photo Installation, Orpheum Theatre, Vancouver.

2008–9

Bill Reid: Master of Haida Art, Bill Reid Gallery of Northwest Coast Art, Vancouver.

2011–12

Bill Reid and the Haida Canoe, Bill Reid Gallery of Northwest Coast Art, Vancouver.

Key Group Exhibitions

A view of the Indians of Canada Pavilion at Expo 67, 1967, photographer unknown. The murals were painted by Francis Kagige. The Kwakiutl totem pole was carved by Tony and Henry Hunt.

1958

Canadian Pavilion, Exposition universelle et internationale, Brussels.

1967

Canadian Pavilion, Expo 67, Montreal.

Arts of the Raven: Masterworks by the Northwest Coast Indian, Vancouver Art Gallery.

1971–84

The Legacy: Tradition and Innovation in Northwest Coast Indian Art, Royal BC Museum, Victoria. Travelled, with changes to artists represented.

1976

Métiers d’art / 2, Centre culturel canadien, Paris.

1981

Pipes That Won’t Smoke, Coal That Won’t Burn: Haida Sculpture in Argillite, Glenbow-Alberta Institute, Calgary.

Native American Arts ’81, Philbrook Art Center, Tulsa.

1983

Vancouver: Art and Artists 1931–1983, Vancouver Art Gallery.

1986

Expo 86. Vancouver.

Ascending Culture: An Exhibition of Recent Acquisitions, Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada, Ottawa.

1987

A Celebration of Canadian Contemporary Native Art, Southwest Museum, Los Angeles.

1987–88

Profiles of a Heritage: Images of Wildlife by British Columbia Artists, Art Gallery of Greater Victoria. Travelling exhibition.

Twenty-five hundred community members gathered at the public raising ceremony of Jim Hart’s *Respect to Bill Reid Pole*, UBC Museum of Anthropology, Vancouver, October 1, 2000. The pole was commissioned to replace Reid’s *House Frontal Totem Pole*, 1961–62, which Reid created for Totem Park at the University of British Columbia. This pole was re-raised inside the UBC Museum of Anthropology’s Great Hall for preservation on October 31, 2002.

1988

Celebration 1988, Petro-Canada Exhibition Gallery, Calgary.

The Northwest: A Collector’s Vision: An Exhibition of Native Art of the Pacific Northwest Coast from the Peacock Collection, Barrie Art Gallery, Barrie, Ontario.

1988–91

In the Shadow of the Sun, Canadian Museum of Civilization (now Canadian Museum of History), Gatineau. Travelled, with changes to artists represented.

1989

Les Amériques de Claude Lévi-Strauss, Musée de l’homme, Paris.

1991–92

Strengthening the Spirit: Works by Native Artists, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa.

1992

Time for Dialogue: Contemporary Artists, organized by the Aboriginal Awareness Society, Calgary. Travelling exhibition.

Vancouver Collects, Vancouver Art Gallery.

A Treasury of Canadian Craft: Inaugural Exhibition, the Canadian Craft Museum, Canadian Craft Museum, Vancouver.

1994

The Spirit of Haida Gwaii, Vancouver Museum.

Bill Reid, University of British Columbia Museum of Anthropology, Vancouver.

Bronfman Award Recipients from British Columbia and Their Commonwealth Colleagues, Art Gallery of Greater Victoria.

1998

Transformations, Stonington Gallery, Seattle.

2000

Arrows of the Spirit: North American Indian Adornment, Mingei International Museum, San Diego.

2004–7

Totems to Turquoise: Native North American Jewelry Arts of the Northwest and Southwest, American Museum of Natural History, New York. Travelling exhibition.

2010

A Tale of Two Artists: Prints by John Brent Bennett and Bill Reid, Bill Reid Gallery of Northwest Coast Art, Vancouver.

Collections

American Museum of Natural History, New York.

Amon Carter Museum of American Art, Fort Worth.

Audain Art Museum, Vancouver.

Bill Reid Gallery of Northwest Coast Art, Vancouver.

Canadian Embassy, Washington, D.C.

Canadian Museum of History, Gatineau.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada, Ottawa.

McMichael Canadian Art Collection, Kleinburg.

Royal BC Museum, Victoria.

Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto.

University of British Columbia Museum of Anthropology, Vancouver.

Vancouver Aquarium.

Vancouver International Airport.

Selected Writings by Bill Reid

As Sole Author

Bill Reid in his studio, 1982, photograph by Robert Keziere.

“The Art: An Appreciation.” In Arts of the Raven: Masterworks by the Northwest Coast Indian; An Exhibition in Honour of the One Hundredth Anniversary of Canadian Confederation, by Wilson Duff, with Bill Holm and Bill Reid, and a foreword by Doris Shadbolt, 45–46. Vancouver: Vancouver Art Gallery, 1967. Exhibition catalogue.

Foreword to Haida Monumental Art: Villages of the Queen Charlotte Islands, by George F. MacDonald. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 1983.

Introduction to One Hundred Years of British Columbia Art, by Robert M. Hume. Vancouver: Vancouver Art Gallery, 1958. Exhibition catalogue.

“Prologue: Wilson Duff, 1925–1976.” In The World Is as Sharp as a Knife: An Anthology in Honour of Wilson Duff, edited by Donald N. Abbott. Victoria: British Columbia Provincial Museum, 1981. Originally published in Vanguard 5, no. 8 (1976): 17.

Solitary Raven: Selected Writings of Bill Reid. Edited by Robert Bringhurst and Martine J. Reid. Vancouver: Douglas & McIntyre, 2000. This volume includes transcripts of selected talks Reid gave on radio and in documentaries, such as People of the Potlatch (1956) and Totem (1959).

“Statement.” In The Great Canoes: Reviving a Northwest Coast Tradition, by David Neel, with an afterword by Tom Heidlebaugh. Seattle: University of Washington Press; Vancouver: Douglas & McIntyre, 1995.

As Joint Author

Cover of *The Raven Steals the Light* (Douglas & McIntyre, 1994; 1996).

Reid, Bill, and Robert Bringhurst. The Raven Steals the Light, 2nd ed. With a preface by Claude Lévi-Strauss and drawings by Bill Reid. Vancouver: Douglas & McIntyre, 1996. First published 1984.

Reid, Bill, and Bill Holm. Indian Art of the Northwest Coast: A Dialogue on Craftsmanship and Aesthetics, edited and with an introduction by Edmund Carpenter. Vancouver: Douglas & McIntyre; Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1978. Originally published as Bill Holm and William Reid, Form and Freedom: A Dialogue on Northwest Coast Indian Art. Houston: Institute for the Arts, Rice University, 1975.

Reid, Bill, and Adelaide de Menil. Out of the Silence. Fort Worth: Amon Carter Museum, 1971.

Selected Critical Writings

Bringhurst, Robert. “Finding Home: The Legacy of Bill Reid.” Canadian Literature 183 (Winter 2004): 180–91.

———, and Ulli Steltzer. The Black Canoe: Bill Reid and the Spirit of Haida Gwaii. Vancouver: Douglas & McIntyre, 1992.

Duff, Wilson. Arts of the Raven: Masterworks by the Northwest Coast Indian. With Bill Holm and Bill Reid, and a foreword by Doris Shadbolt. Vancouver: Vancouver Art Gallery, 1967. Exhibition catalogue.

Duffek, Karen. Bill Reid: Beyond the Essential Form. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press in association with the University of British Columbia Museum of Anthropology, 1986. Exhibition catalogue.

Lévi-Strauss, Claude. Bill Reid: A Retrospective Exhibition, the Vancouver Art Gallery, November 6 to December 8, 1974. Vancouver: Vancouver Art Gallery, 1974.

Reid, Martine J. Bill Reid Collected. Vancouver: Douglas & McIntyre in collaboration with the Bill Reid Foundation, 2016.

———. Bill Reid and the Haida Canoe. Vancouver: Bill Reid Gallery of Northwest Coast Art, 2011.

Shadbolt, Doris. Bill Reid. Vancouver: Douglas & McIntyre, 1986.

Steltzer, Ulli. The Spirit of Haida Gwaii: Bill Reid’s Masterpiece. With a foreword by Bill Reid and an introduction by Robert Laurence. Vancouver: Douglas & McIntyre; Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1997.

Key Interviews with Bill Reid

Cover of *Bill Reid Collected* (Douglas & McIntyre in collaboration with the Bill Reid Foundation, 2016).

Cover of *Solitary Raven* (Douglas & McIntyre, 2000).

1975
Dialogue with Bill Holm at Rice University, Houston. Transcript originally published as Form and Freedom: A Dialogue on Northwest Coast Indian Art, edited and with an introduction by Edmund Carpenter (Houston: Institute for the Arts, Rice University, 1975).

1976
Lynn Maranda and Robert D. Watt, “An Interview with Bill Reid.” Canadian Collector 11, no. 3 (May/June 1976): 34–37.

1979
Interview with Bill Reid by Gerald McMaster, video. Personal collection of Gerald McMaster. https://vimeo.com/485937631.

Film, Audio, and Video

2002
National Gallery of Canada. “A Keepsake of ‘The Spirit Concert’ from CBC Television and the Bill Reid Foundation.” Concert: May 18, 2002; Vancouver broadcast: November 14, 2002. Videocassette, 72 min.

2010
A Tribute to Bill Reid. Bill Reid’s memorial ceremony at the University of British Columbia Museum of Anthropology: https://vimeo.com/8718718.

CBC Digital Archive of Videos & Recordings

Bill Reid at the CBC, Toronto, 1948, photographer unknown.

“Looking at Art Showcases Haida Art.” (6:46 min). Broadcast date: July 27, 1954. https://www.cbc.ca/archives/entry/looking-at-art-showcases-haida-art

“Bill Reid Explains the Carvers of the Totem Poles.” (14:17 min). Radio special; broadcast date: November 1, 1957. https://www.cbc.ca/archives/entry/carvers-of-the-totem-poles

“Bill Reid’s Rescue Mission for Haida Art.” (9:18 min). Television broadcast date: May 21, 1959. https://www.cbc.ca/archives/entry/rescue-mission-for-haida-art

“Bill Reid’s Farewell Screen.” (5:02 min). Television broadcast date: July 19, 1968.
https://www.cbc.ca/player/play/1564892009

“Bill Reid Completes New Totem Pole.” (14:18 min). Radio broadcast date: June 17, 1978. https://www.cbc.ca/archives/entry/bill-reid-completes-new-totem-pole

“The Art of Bill Reid: Converging Haida and European Styles.” (9:53 min). Radio broadcast date: April 5, 1983. https://www.cbc.ca/archives/entry/converging-haida-and-european-styles

“Bill Reid: Reluctant Icon.” (9:40 min). Radio broadcast date: August 12, 1985.
https://www.cbc.ca/archives/entry/bill-reid-reluctant-icon

“Bill Reid: Searching for the Perfect Cedar.” (13:55 min). Radio broadcast date: September 18, 1986. https://www.cbc.ca/archives/entry/bill-reid-searching-for-the-perfect-cedar

“Haida Gwaii Sculpture in Washington.” (2:32 min). Television broadcast date: November 18, 1991. https://www.cbc.ca/archives/entry/haida-gwaii-sculpture-in-washington

“The Private Bill Reid.” (6:48 min). Radio broadcast date: March 1, 1994. https://www.cbc.ca/player/play/1742270566

“Bill Reid, the Grand Old Man of Haida Art.” (8:55 min). Television broadcast date: January 14, 1996. https://www.cbc.ca/archives/entry/the-grand-old-man-of-haida-art

“Bill Reid’s Jade Canoe.” (7:39 min). Television special; broadcast date: October 25, 1997. https://www.cbc.ca/player/play/1742147100

“Bill Reid Remembered.” (2:04 min). Television broadcast date: March 13, 1998.
https://www.cbc.ca/archives/entry/bill-reid-remembered

“A Portrait of the Artist Bill Reid.” (2:37 min). Television broadcast date: October 12, 1999. https://www.cbc.ca/archives/entry/a-portrait-of-the-artist-bill-reid

Canadian Museum of Civilization, ed. In the Shadow of the Sun: Perspectives on Contemporary Native Art. With an introduction by Gerald R. McMaster and essays by Karen Duffek, Viviane Gray, Ruth B. Phillips, and others. Hull: Canadian Museum of Civilization, 1993. Exhibition catalogue. Originally published in 1988 by Edition Cantz, Stuttgart, Germany, and edited by Gerhard Hoffmann.

Clifford, James. “Of Other Peoples: Beyond the ‘Salvage Paradigm.’” In Discussions in Contemporary Culture No. 1, edited by Hal Foster, 73–78. New York: New Press, 1987.

Cole, Douglas. “The Invented Indian/The Imagined Family.” BC Studies, no. 125/126 (Spring/Summer 2000): 147–62.

Collison, Jisgang Nika. Foreword to Duffek and Townsend-Gault, Bill Reid and Beyond, 1–2.

———, ed. Gina Suuda Tl’l Xasii—Came to Tell Something: Art and Artist in Haida Society. Haida Gwaii: Haida Gwaii Museum Press, 2014.

Cranmer Webster, Gloria. “The Dark Years.” In Native Art of the Northwest Coast: A History of Changing Ideas, edited by Charlotte Townsend-Gault, Jennifer Kramer, and Ki-ke-in. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 2013.

Cover of *The Spirit of Haida Gwaii* (Douglas & McIntyre; University of Washington Press, 1997).

Cover of *Bill Reid* by Doris Shadbolt (Douglas & McIntyre, 1986).

Crosby, Marcia. “Construction of the Imaginary Indian.” In Vancouver Anthology: The Institutional Politics of Art, edited by Stan Douglas, 286–87. Vancouver: Talonbooks, 1991.

Duffek, Karen, and Charlotte Townsend-Gault, eds. Bill Reid and Beyond: Expanding on Modern Native Art. Vancouver: Douglas & McIntyre; Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2004.

Halpin, Marjorie M. “A Critique of the Boasian Paradigm for Northwest Coast Art.” Culture 14, no. 1 (1994): 6–7.

———. Review of Bill Reid by Doris Shadbolt. In Douglas & McIntyre brochure promoting new publications, 13–15. Vancouver: Douglas & McIntyre, 1986.

Hawthorn, Audrey. “The Carvings of Totem Park.” Davidsonia 2, no. 2 (Summer 1971): 9–21.

Hawthorn, H.B., C.S. Belshaw, and S.M. Jamieson. The Indians of British Columbia: A Study of Contemporary Social Adjustment. Toronto: University of Toronto Press and the University of British Columbia, 1960.

Jonaitis, Aldona. Art of the Northwest Coast. Vancouver: Douglas & McIntyre; Seattle: University of Washington Press. 2006.

———. “Reconsidering the Northwest Coast Renaissance.” In Duffek and Townsend-Gault, Bill Reid and Beyond, 155–74.

King Plant, Byron. “‘A Relationship and Interchange of Experience.’ H.B. Hawthorn, Indian Affairs, and the 1955 BC Indian Research Project.” BC Studies, no. 163 (Autumn 2009): 5–31.

Krauss, Rosalind E. The Optical Unconscious. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1995.

Bill Reid and the Skidegate Dogfish Pole, 1978, photograph by George F. MacDonald.

Lévi-Strauss, Claude. The Way of the Masks. Translated by Sylvia Modelski. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1982. Originally published as La voie des masques, 2 vols. Paris: Skira, 1972.

McMaster, Gerald. “Towards an Aboriginal Art History.” In Native American Art in the Twentieth Century, edited by W. Jackson Rushing III, 81–96. London and New York: Routledge, 1999.

Neel, Ellen. “Presentation to the Conference.” In Report of Conference on Native Indian Affairs at Arcadia Camp, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, B.C., April 1, 2 and 3, 1948, edited by Harry B. Hawthorn, B.C. Indian Arts and Welfare Society, and the British Columbia Provincial Museum. Victoria: B.C. Indian Arts and Welfare Society. University of Victoria Archives, BC Indian Arts Society fonds (AR018), Acc. 1991-085, file 3.20.

Nicolson, Marianne. “A Bringer of Change: ‘Through Inadvertence and Accident.’” In Duffek and Townsend-Gault, Bill Reid and Beyond, 245–50.

O’Hara, Jane. “The Battle for an Island Forest.” Maclean’s, December 9, 1985. https://archive.macleans.ca/article/1985/12/9/the-battle-for-an-island-forest

Phillips, Ruth B., and Sherry Brydon. “Arrow of Truth: The Indians of Canada Pavilion at Expo 67.” In Museum Pieces: Toward the Indigenization of Canadian Museums, edited by Ruth B. Phillips, 27–47. Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2011.

Pratt, Mary Louise. “Arts of the Contact Zone.” Profession, Modern Language Association (1991): 33–40.

Rammell, George. “Authentic Master, Bill Reid.” Vancouver Sun, October 30, 1999.

Reid, Martine J. “In Search of Things Past, Remembered, Retraced and Reinvented.” In Canadian Museum of Civilization, In the Shadow of the Sun: Perspectives on Contemporary Native Art (Hull: Canadian Museum of Civilization, 1993), 71–92.

Rutherdale, Myra, and Jim Miller. “‘It’s Our Country’: First Nations’ Participation in the Indian Pavilion at Expo 67.” Journal of the Canadian Historical Association 17, no. 2 (2006): 148–73.

Steltzer, Ulli. Indian Artists at Work. Vancouver: J.J. Douglas, 1976.

von der Porten, Suzanne. “Lyell Island (Athlii Gwaii) Case Study: Social Innovation by the Haida Nation.” American Indian Culture and Research Journal 38, no. 3 (2014): 85–106.

Wright, Robin K. Northern Haida Master Carvers. Vancouver and Toronto: Douglas & McIntyre, 2001.

———, and Daina Augaitis, eds. Charles Edenshaw. London, UK: Black Dog Publishing; Vancouver: Vancouver Art Gallery, 2013. Published in conjunction with Charles Edenshaw, an exhibition organized by the Vancouver Art Gallery, curated by Robin K. Wright and Daina Augaitis.