Haida artist, Figure, about 1850. Argillite, abalone shell, walrus whiskers; 13½ x 4 x 2¼ in. Denver Art Museum: Native Arts acquisition fund, 1947.284

height: 13 1/2 in, 34.29 cm; width: 4 in, 10.1600 cm; depth: 2 1/4 in, 5.715 cm

Native Arts

Indigenous Arts of North America

This piece was carved out of a soft black stone called argillite. Beginning in the early 1800s Haida artists created a new art form primarily for sale to non-natives but based on long-established principles of Haida art. Over the years, figures, pipes, and plates became increasingly complex in their surface adornment and openwork sculptural forms.

Purchased 1947 from Erich Kohlberg by the Denver Art Museum