Northwest Coast Indian Art: An Analysis of Form

This book is a classic, and is invaluable for the serious student of Pacific Northwest Coast artwork. Note, however, that I emphasize the word "serious." If you are more of a beginner or casual observer, this book should be third on your list behind "Looking at Indian Art of the Northwest Coast" by Hilary Stewart and "Learning by Designing Pacific Northwest Coast Native Art, Vol. 1" by Gilbert and Clark.Although the book is easy to read and very well written, it has a decidely academic tone to it. Mr. Holm studied large numbers of authentic examples, and draws conclusions about patterns.For example, he points out that an ovoid within another ovoid (an "inner ovoid") is always placed either vertically centered OR closer to the top than the bottom. If it is placed closer to what appears to be the bottom, then it is because the artist is telling us that that particular part of the artwork is actually upside down.He then backs this up with data based on his researches. In other words, he "reverse engineered" the unwritten rules of how to do this type of artwork.But his focus is on details and small parts, not on the larger picture of how these elements are used by an artist to convey a message or depict something. There is almost no information on the myths and legends that the artwork is based on, nor on ways to discern between the various animals.Note that I do NOT say this as a criticism -- it is not a bad thing that the book does not contain such info! Plenty of other books do. This book has a specific purpose, which is to analyze the elements of the artform, and this book is unquestionably the best one on that topic. In fact, it is the ONLY one that goes into this level of detail.If you want to know why the Raven is often depicted with the Sun in his beak, this book is not for you. If you want to look at a drawing or totem pole and know which is a beaver and which is a bear, this book won't be much help. But if you want to know how and when and why to use blue as a tertiary color, or how wide a black formline should be at the top versus the bottom, this book is the one you want.If you can only buy one or two books on this artform (or even if you can buy more), start with the two I listed above. Then buy this one. It is a great book and worth buying, and once you have an understanding of the bigger picture, the undertsanding of the details provided by Holm is truly fascinating.

This book was a favorite years ago, but it was lost. I am so happy to have found it again. Thank you, Phil and Kathy Bence, for the quick delivery!

I've loved this book for 47 years. I've known Bill Holm since my early days of study as an artist. I'm happy to have this hard copy. It came from Amazon in pristine condition. Thank you, Amazon.

This book would be 4-5 stars, but all of the figures are in black and white. This doesn't seem like a big deal, until you consider that it's a technical discussion of various aspects of the art. The section on color may well have not been included because of this point. It does no good for the author to discuss reds and blue-greens when the reader is unable to follow and visualize based on the black and white figures. I'm really disappointed that the author, the editor, and the publishing house allowed the book to be released without including color figures. It made what should have been an excellent book, only a so-so one.

And very readible!