SOLD WORKS
Robert Charles Davidson, G̲uud San Glans (Eagle of the Dawn) of the Eagle Clan, was born in Hydaburg, Alaska in 1946 and was raised in Old Massett, Haida Gwaii. His father, Claude Davidson, and Grandfather, Claude Davidson Sr., began Robert’s carving career in wood and argillite when he was 13 years old. He was majorly influenced by his great-grandfather Charles Edenshaw and his grandmother Florence Davidson who had 13 children, providing a large number of ‘aunties’ to whom Robert was very close.
It was necessary to move to Vancouver in 1965 for Robert to complete high school, and it was there that he learned to produce silkscreen prints. In 1966 he was demonstrating carving at Eaton’s Department Store where he met Bill Reid, with whom he would develop a lasting relationship. Robert moved into Bill Reid’s studio where the apprentice made his own tools and would learn the fundamentals of two-dimensional design, and worked with him for the next eighteen months. Bill Reid is credited as the connector or bridge between the works of Charles Edenshaw and Robert Davidson.
In 1967 Robert attended the Vancouver School of Art (now Emily Carr University) and was swept up in the 1960’s abstract and modern art scene. He enrolled in a jewellery course where he began experimenting with abstraction, which also influenced his print making. He taught for six months in 1968 at ‘Ksan, a reconstructed village near Hazelton, and in 1969 he returned to Masset where he carved and erected a forty-foot totem pole, the first to be raised in Haida Gwaii in almost a hundred years. During this time his reputation spread and he was regularly commissioned for poles, masks, carvings prints and jewellery in silver and gold.
Robert Davidson is best known for his thorough understanding and mastering of traditional Haida sculpture and design. He is celebrated for his fine craftsmanship as well as his understanding of Northern two-dimensional design. Widely recognized, Robert Davidson has won many awards including the Governor General’s Award for Visual Arts and the Audain Prize for Lifetime Achievement Award in the Visual Arts. He is the recipient of the Order of BC and the Order of Canada, and is the subject of the documentary Haida Modern. The Vancouver Art Gallery has held nearly twenty-five solo shows of Robert Davidson’s work, and his carvings, prints, paintings and jewellery can be found in major collections and institutions worldwide.
Robert Davidson is the subject of the 2019 film Haida Modern, and the 1969 pole raising is the subject of the recent documentary film Now Is The Time.