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Yéil X'eenh (Raven Screen)

Photo: Paul Macapia

Yéil X'eenh (Raven Screen)

ca. 1810

Native American, Kadyisdu.axch', Tlingit, Kiks.adi clan

active late 18th - early 19th century

The wooden screen and houseposts adorned with mythical beings sacred to the clan are the focal point of the longhouse. Functionally, the screen creates a separation for the quarters of th house master (Hít S'ááti), entrusted with protecting clan treasures (at.óow). Black formlines define Raven's broad face, body, wings and tail feathers. Its legs are painted red, as are other shapes that define its anatomy, and blue-painted elements create balance and contrast.
Spruce, paint
105 3/4 x 129 in. (268.62 x 327.66 cm)
Gift of John H. Hauberg
79.98
Photo: Paul Macapia
location
Now on view at the Seattle Art Museum

Resources

Published ReferencesAdams, Laurie Schneider, World Views Topics in Non-Western Art, New York: McGraw Hill, p. 101

Selected Works, Seattle, WA: Seattle Art Museum, 1991, p. 77

The Spirit Within: Northwest Coast Native Art from the John H. Hauberg Collection, Seattle, WA: Seattle Art Museum, 1995, p. 44

Kodansha. Weekly World Travel, No. 94, 2000, p. 16

Brotherton, Barbara, Native Art of the Northwest Coast, A Community of Collectors, Seattle, WA: Seattle Art Museum, 2008, p. 142, illus. fig. 1.

Stark, Peter, Astoria: John Jacob Astor and Thomas Jefferson's Lost Pacific Empire, A Story of Wealth, Ambition, and Survival, New York: Harper Collins, 2014, illus. on unnumbered plate, credit p. 353

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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