James, Charlie (1875-1938)
Charlie James, (1875 – 1938) a highly creative and very productive artist, Charlie James (or Yakuglas), carved many pieces for traditional use within Kwakiutl / Kwakwaka'wakw culture, in addition hundreds of model totems and other pieces for the commercial market. Few carvers have been as influential as James; his work laid the creative foundation for many artists. When he married Mungo Martin's mother, his stepson Mungo Martin, his daughter Ellen Neel, and Henry Hunt to name just a few, have been touched by his artistic legacy. Today his work has come to epitomize traditional southern Kwakiutl art, though in his time he had a bold and unique style, unlike anyone else of his period.
Charlie James was instrumental in establishing what might be termed the Fort Rupert substyle of Kwakwaka’wakw art. This substyle, distinct from that of the Blunden Harbour-Smith Inlet carvers, was developed and elaborated by his stepson Mungo Martin and is carried on today by Martin’s descendants, the Hunt family of carvers.
He had a flamboyant, free-form style, in contrast to the precise, cerebral style that is in vogue today. His figures were not rigidly composed, and often one animal would lounge across the body of another: a unique approach to composition in Northwest Coast totem poles. He introduced vibrant colors, incorporating blues, oranges, browns, greens in addition to black and red. It is impossible to deal with his work in such a short essay, what is important to note is that his "traditional" approach to Kwakiutl sculpture was not traditional until he did it first. His artwork was not like the previous generation of carvers; he had a unique approach and was not afraid to experiment.
A great many of his works have been published in books and exhibition catalogues, though little has been published about the artist himself, and his body of work has never been catalogued. James has been a very influential carver for the current generation of Northwest Coast Indigenous artists.
