ROBERT DAVIDSON (GUUD SANS GLANS), O.C., O.B.C., (1946-) HAIDA, MASSET / WHITE ROCK
Untitled (Recollections or The Marriage Announcement), November 1986
acrylic and gouache on heavy wove Archives blind embossed watercolour paper, 29 x 41 in (73.7 x 104.1 cm)
signed and dated, "Robert Davidson / Nov '86".

ESTIMATE: $30,000 — $50,000

Provenance
Spirit Wrestler Gallery, Vancouver, as Reflections Painting;
Acquired from the above by the present Private Collection, Texas.

Published


Gary Wyatt with Robert Davidson, Echoes of the Supernatural: The Graphic Art of Robert Davidson (Vancouver: Figure 1 Publishing Inc., 2023), p. 242, as Recollections and illustrated horizontally.

Exhibited
Philadelphia, PA, Arthur Ross Gallery, University of Philadelphia, Robert Davidson: Recollections. Discoveries in Northwest Coast Tradition, 1 May-19 July 1992, cat. no. 159, as Marriage Announcement and "Gouache on paper".

Untitled by Robert Davidson but referred to as Recollections due to its inclusion in the show by the same name (cited above), or The Marriage Announcement because it was used as the invitation to the Robert Davidson / Dorothy Grant wedding in 1986. At the time, Davidson had committed to making original paintings and began keeping an active sketchbook with doodles and drawings that could be developed into more detailed drawings and finally paintings. He always had a painting in progress in the studio as a diversion from sculpture. During this period most of the paintings were large scale watercolour or gouache on paper.

Davidson made numerous paintings incorporating a shape within a shape based on a design innovation attributed to the Master of the Black Field (a title given by Bill Reid and Wilson Duff to the work of an historic master artist), an early influence on Robert Davidson. The shape within a shape would have a strong impact on his painting style, but the present work is a seminal creation: his first painting to incorporate a central hard-edge square. The square is surrounded by “ghost forms” that hold the design in place and create a secondary subject. Ghost forms are an innovation introduced by Davidson to define the Supernatural Realm as a third dimension of the art form. In 1987 he applied the square surrounding a circle in the two-print set Seven Ravens which portrayed his seven aunts. The same format would later be used in the painting and limited-edition print of The World is as Sharp as the Edge of a Knife, but there the square’s edges would be bowed to create a tension that pulls the design into the corners.

Gary Wyatt