Artist Dempsey Bob (1948), a renowned Tahltan/Tlingit master carver whose exquisite work is featured in a current cross-Canada exhibition, comes from humble beginnings in Northwest B.C. He is of the Wolf Clan.
Although he has made chiefs’ hats and boxes, speakers’ staffs, monumental wall panels, memorial poles, rattles, jewellery and free-standing figures, many of his works, especially those executed in fine-grained alder wood, riff on the format of the ceremonial masks of his ancestors (one example below).
One of the first Northwest Coast artists in British Columbia to find a market, Bob is equal parts traditionalist and vanguard. The show Wolves – The Art of Dempsey Bob – is a retrospective of the 75-year-old’s celebrated career.
The exhibition includes works from public and private collections: masks, panels, wall sculptures and vessels complemented by bronze casting, goldsmithing, printmaking and vestment production.
The exhibition showcases his sophisticated carving style and his striking gift for storytelling in both art and language. Masks, for example, “feature curved surfaces so smooth and soft looking that they appear to have been carved of butter,” wrote Katherine Fawcett about the exhibition when it was at the Audain Art Museum in B.C.
Bob was appointed an Officer of the Order of Canada in 2013 for his lifetime of work as a carver and art teacher, and for his dedication to Tahltan-Tlingit cultural preservation. He was also a recipient of a Governor General’s Award in Visual and Media Arts in 2021.
For the artist, Wolves is more than just a museum exhibition. It’s more like a family reunion. “I can feel these guys – they’re like my children. I haven’t seen them for a long time,” Bob told APTN News.
“This one piece was looking at me, this little mask – and it was like ‘where the hell have you been, dad? It’s been 40 years!”
Image top of post: Wolf Chief’s Hat, 1993, red cedar, acrylic paint, operculum, horse hair, leather, ermine, 38 x 45.7 x 45.7 cm
Information about the travelling exhibition, on through Sept. 10, 2023 at Montreal Museum of Fine Arts.
A long profile on Dempsey Bob at Border Crossings magazine, here.
This is #50 in the series 150 Artists, an ongoing series on artists you should know.
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Impressive, inspiring and important. Thank you!
Important is exactly right. Even with the rise in appreciation of indigenous art here in Canada, there are still too many uncelebrated carvers, beadwork artists and similar artisans. I love the description of his carving as “buttery”
You made my day (again) – big swoon!
How wonderful.
Cool stuff. Thanks!
You’re so welcome. Happy to introduce him to us all (yes, I had not really heard much about him before I did the post, which is why I love exploring for the blog)