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Blue Heron

1986

First Nations, Kwakwaka'wakw, born 1958

Blue Heron was part of a series of prints created by Hunt as precursors to his designs for paintings on drums. Hunt’s drums, among the most admired and collected of the instrument genre, are multimedia sculptures. The drum form is meticulously fabricated from wood and deer hide, and the drum head is emblazoned with complex designs. In the case of bird drums, the body of the bird is stylized on the surface while a sculpted wooden piece serves as the head, complete with inlays and feather attachments.

Silkscreen on Arches cover white rag paper

Sheet: 19 1/4 x 20 1/2 in. (48.9 x 52.1 cm)

Image: 18 1/4 x 19 3/8 in. (46.4 x 49.2 cm)

Gift of R. Bruce and Mary-Louise Colwell

2018.29.76

Provenance: [Pacific Editions Limited, Victoria, British Columbia]; purchased by Bruce and Mary-Louise Colwell, Seattle, Washington, Nov. 4, 2005

Not currently on view

Resources

Exhibition HistorySeattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, Avian Avatars: Birds in Northwest Coast Prints from the Colwell Collection, Dec. 15, 2021 - June 12, 2022.

Seattle Art Museum respectfully acknowledges that we are on Indigenous land, the traditional territories of the Coast Salish people. We honor our ongoing connection to these communities past, present, and future.

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