Jack Shadbolt, and the Coastal Indian image

Summary: Jack Shadbolt was inspired in his formative years by his contact with Emily Carr and with her brooding works, portraying the remnants of Indian villages against the overwhelming wilderness. He made sketches of Indian artifacts and the Cowichan Reserve in the 1930s, but it was only after World War II that elements of Indian art began to show up in his style....Though Jack Shadbolt has never been an ideological artist, he recognizes that his recent works make direct political statements. But he believes his expression of his feelings must continue to be in poetic rather than literal terms. Shadbolt's paintings reveal his emotional sympathy with Kwagiult, Haida, and Tlingit forms and his deep response to the Indian's spiritual and historic presence in the British Columbia environment. Marjorie Halpin adds an informative and intriguing commentary to the growing body of critical literature on Jack Shadbolt and the various movements of which he has been a part. Significantly too, she stresses the commonality between Canadian native and non-native artists in addressing universal artistic concerns.

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