Bowdoin College Museum of Art | - Fancy Basket with Swirl Curls

Preview image of work. ash, Fancy Basket with Swirl Curls 37317

2018.13.15

Recommend keywords

Help us make our collections more accessible by providing keywords to describe this artwork. The BCMA uses the Getty Art & Architecture Thesaurus to provide consistent keywords. Enter a keyword in the field below and you will be prompted with a list of possible matching AAT preferred terms.

Fancy Basket with Swirl Curls

Export record as: Plain text | JSON | CDWA-Lite | VRA Core 4

Artist

Artist Unidentified (Maliseet)

Title

Fancy Basket with Swirl Curls

Creation Date

n.d.

Dimensions

3 x 8 in. (7.62 x 20.32 cm)

Object Type

textile/natural fiber

Creation Place

North America, United States

Medium and Support

ash

Credit Line

Anonymous Gift

Copyright

This artwork may be under copyright. For further information, please consult the Museum’s Copyright Terms and Conditions.

Accession Number

2018.13.15

While the Wabanaki have been weaving baskets since time immemorial, when they were forced off their land under European colonization basket-making became a means of economic independence and resistance to assimilation. Since the nineteenth century, Wabanaki artists innovated traditional utilitarian forms to meet collectors’ tastes, leading to a new style of basketmaking—fancy baskets. This fancy basket was created by a skilled Maliseet basket-maker who twisted strips of black ash into fancy swirls and curls across its surface. It may have held light items, such as herbs or scrap pieces of material. - From the exhibition Innovation and Resilience Across Three Generations of Wabanaki Basket-Making (February 1–May 1, 2022), curated by members of the Native American Student Association—Amanda Cassano ’22, Sunshine Eaton ’22, and Shandiin Largo ’23.

Additional Media

alternate side, overall