Guardian of the Sea
Preston Singletary
Arts of the Americas
On View: Luce Visible Storage and Study Center, 5th Floor
Corporations and even our current government are rolling back environmental regulations, defunding scientific research, building oil pipelines which endanger our clean water, and a whole host of other issues that endanger our health as a nation. In my opinion, this is due to the lack of a true spiritual connection in relation to nature. . . . It is driven by a blind and misguided capitalist perspective that is not balanced by a respect for our environment.
—Preston Singletary, 2019
This work embodies the connection between tradition and artistic innovation. The artist Preston Singletary employs the medium of glass both to counter the stereotype that Native artists must use traditional materials and to preserve cultural symbols of his tribe that are tied to the local environment. Here, Singletary depicts the southern resident killer whale (or orca), a hereditary crest figure of his clan. Habitat contamination and the rapid decline of the Chinook salmon, this whale’s main food source, have brought it to the brink of extinction.
—Preston Singletary, 2019
This work embodies the connection between tradition and artistic innovation. The artist Preston Singletary employs the medium of glass both to counter the stereotype that Native artists must use traditional materials and to preserve cultural symbols of his tribe that are tied to the local environment. Here, Singletary depicts the southern resident killer whale (or orca), a hereditary crest figure of his clan. Habitat contamination and the rapid decline of the Chinook salmon, this whale’s main food source, have brought it to the brink of extinction.
MEDIUM
Glass
DATES
2004
DIMENSIONS
18 x 6 x 18 in. (45.7 x 15.2 x 45.7 cm) (show scale)
COLLECTIONS
Arts of the Americas
ACCESSION NUMBER
2004.2
CREDIT LINE
Gift of Fairfield-Maxwell, Ltd., by exchange
CATALOGUE DESCRIPTION
Sculpture of blown and sand-carved glass is red and black, the two signature colors for Northwest Coast art. It represents a killer whale, one of the crest designs of Tlingit artist Preston Singletary. It is made using traditional form-line designs with black forming the positive, primary spaces and red forming the negative, secondary spaces. The whale is arched, with flippers and tail fins down and dorsal fin up.
Condition: excellent.
EXHIBITIONS
MUSEUM LOCATION
This item is on view in Luce Visible Storage and Study Center, 5th Floor
CAPTION
Preston Singletary (Tlingit, born 1963). Guardian of the Sea, 2004. Glass, 18 x 6 x 18 in. (45.7 x 15.2 x 45.7 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Fairfield-Maxwell, Ltd., by exchange
, 2004.2. © artist or artist's estate (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 2004.2_Russell_Johnson_photo_SL3.jpg)
IMAGE
threequarter, 2004.2_Russell_Johnson_photo_SL3.jpg. Brooklyn Museum photograph
"CUR" at the beginning of an image file name means that the image was created by a curatorial staff member. These study images may be digital point-and-shoot photographs, when we don\'t yet have high-quality studio photography, or they may be scans of older negatives, slides, or photographic prints, providing historical documentation of the object.
RIGHTS STATEMENT
© Preston Singletary
The Brooklyn Museum holds a non-exclusive license to reproduce images of this work of art from the rights holder named here.
The Museum does not warrant that the use of this work will not infringe on the rights of third parties. It is your responsibility to determine and satisfy copyright or other use restrictions before copying, transmitting, or making other use of protected items beyond that allowed by "fair use," as such term is understood under the United States Copyright Act.
For further information about copyright, we recommend resources at the United States Library of Congress, Cornell University, Copyright and Cultural Institutions: Guidelines for U.S. Libraries, Archives, and Museums, and Copyright Watch.
For more information about the Museum's rights project, including how rights types are assigned, please see our blog posts on copyright.
If you have any information regarding this work and rights to it, please contact copyright@brooklynmuseum.org.
If you wish to contact the rights holder for this work, please email copyright@brooklynmuseum.org and we will assist if we can.
RECORD COMPLETENESS
Not every record you will find here is complete. More information is available for some works than for others, and some entries have been updated more recently. Records are frequently reviewed and revised, and we welcome any additional information you might have.
