Fully illustrated and engagingly written, K'esu' is the first book to honour this artist's ground-breaking work. Northwest Coast art is renowned for its flamboyant, energetic and colourful carving and painting. Among the leading practitioners was Doug Cranmer, whose style was understated, elegant and fresh and whose work quickly found an international following in the 1960s. He was an early player in the global commercial art market and one of the first Native artists in British Columbia to own his own gallery. A long-time teacher, he inspired generations of young Native artists in Alert Bay, British Columbia, and across the province. To date, however, his considerable contributions have gone largely unrecognised. This beautifully illustrated book is a record of the art, life and influence of a man who embodied ?indigenous modern? before the term had been coined but preferred the descriptor ?whittler? or ?doodler? to artist.? Skillfully weaving excerpts from his friends and family, facts about his life and examples of his stunning artwork, K' esu' captures the artist's personality and his paradoxes in this wide-ranging celebration of Cranmer, his oeuvre and his profound influence on generations of artists. Exhibition Dates March to September 2012 Museum of Anthropology, Vancouver AUTHOR: Jennifer Kramer holds a joint position as assistant professor in the department of anthropology and as curator of the Pacific Northwest at the Museum of Anthropology at the University of British Columbia. She has worked with the Nuxalk Nation of Bella Coola, BC, since 1994 on cultural renewal, Nuxalk-controlled education, art production, representation and repatriation, and the art market. Kramer has worked with the since 2004 to collaborate on the care and curation of their cultural heritage in collections at the Museum of Anthropology. ILLUSTRATIONS: 101 images
