When you see the work of Kwakiutl artist, Bob Harris, you can’t help but ask; how can this artist be unrecognized after so many years?  His carvings are in many public collections and are illustrated in numerous books, often appearing without attribution. He has a strong personal style that is easily identifiable, and his body of work has helped define traditional North West Coast Native art. In looking at the pieces on this page, you may find that they appear familiar, archetypical even. Though the artist is something of an enigma, his work has been hugely influential, and well documented (only visually), though almost nothing about the man has been published.

The Chicago Field Museum has a number of his best pieces in their collection, though, at the time of my research, they were not attributed to the artist and were displayed simply as “Kwakiutl”. Some of those pieces were commissioned by museum in about 1904, when Harris was part of a group of Kwakiutl performers who appeared at the Saint Louis World’s Fair, and his work was seen by an international audience. He was a talented dancer and singer and was active in Kwakiutl ceremonial life.

His traditional name was “Xixa'niyus”, which in English means: Always-Gives-All-His-Blankets-Away (the trade blanket was the medium of exchange within the potlatch for many years). He came from Knight Inlet clan called the Kamtalał, or the Song-Dancer-Clan. He married Tłaḵwe'ł or Mary Mountain, who was from Village Island (a Kwakwaka’wakw village) on her mother’s side, and her father was Nage or “Mountain.” He was a Bella Bella chief, so a number of potlatch privileges (songs, dances and masks) were transferred to him, and remain among his Kwakiutl descendants. His daughter, Wadzidi, married Captain John Speck or Chief Udzistalis and their son was Chief Henry Speck or Galidi. So Bob Harris is the grandfather of well known Kwakiutl carver and painter Henry Speck.

His work is of the same high caliber as best historic N.W.C. Native artists, such as: Charlie James, Charles Edenshaw or Willie Seaweed, though little is known about Harris. For example, the pieces that comprise his body of work have never been recognized as the carvings of one artist and they remain un-attributed. I have been aware of the quality of his work for more than two decades and I have been waiting for some academic research to be published, though to the best of my knowledge, scant research has been done. This is not unusual in N.W.C. Native art studies; even a monumental figure like Mungo Martin has yet to have comprehensive study about his life and art published.

What is unusual about Harris’s situation is the degree to which his career has been overlooked. When you view the images of his carvings included here, there can be no doubt that he was a master artist with a strong, mature, individual style, although there is very little information about the artist. How many other equally talented N.W.C. Native artists are similarly unrecognized, although numerous pieces of their work are in public collections and available to Native art historians and curators for research purposes? That fact that such a significant artist can remain virtually unknown, underlines the amount of research yet to be done in N.W.C. Native art history.

NOTE: This page is a work in progress. If you have information about the life of Bob Harris or photographs of his work, please email me. I would like to include them here.