Type of Document	Dissertation
Author	Butler Palmer, Carolyn W.
Author's Email Address	cpalmer@allegheny.edu
URN	etd-08112006-134550
Title	I WON'T PLAY PRIMITIVE TO YOUR MODERN: THE ART OF DAVID NEEL (KWAGIUTL), 1985-2000
Degree	Doctor of Philosophy
Program	History of Art and Architecture
School	School of Arts and Sciences
Advisory Committee	Advisor Name Title Kirk Savage, PhD Committee Co-Chair Terence E. Smith, PhD Committee Co-Chair Allan J. Ryan, PhD Committee Member Katheryn Linduff, PhD Committee Member
Keywords	Northwest Coast art art history intercultural communication political aesthetics Ellen Neel Charlie James David Neel family photography Henri Cartier-Bresson Pablo Picasso Modernism indigeneity Mungo Martin Native American art visual culture W. Eugene Smith photography 20th century concerned photography
Date of Defense	2006-04-21
Availability	restricted
Abstract I Won't Play Primitive to Your Modern: The Art of David Neel (Kwagiutl), 1985-2000 examines the production and reception of one artist's work as it crosses discursive arenas. This dissertation theorizes that, at times, Neel draws upon his schooling in photojournalism and his training as a carver to challenge Eurocentric assumptions tied to two ideals: that looking is disinterested, and that justice is blind. At other times, Neel uses the same skills to provoke an experience of viewing that yields political or spiritual transcendence. I Won't Play Primitive to Your Modern, then, investigates overlaps and gaps between different conventions and experiences of looking in a study connected to questions of epistemology, metaphysics, and phenomenology. My research examines Neel's art in conjunction with his own mobility through Mexican, African-American, Asian and Euro-American communities, as well as indigenous North America. My interpretation is predicated on evidence derived from oral histories, fieldwork, and archival research. I also apply strategies of visual analysis informed by an interdisciplinary array of theories about looking forwarded by scholars such as Barbara Stafford, Susan Sontag, Christopher Pinney, James Clifford, Roland Barthes, W.J.T. Mitchell, Robert Davidson (Haida), Nancy Mithlo (Chiricahua Apache), and Charlotte Townsend-Gault. My analysis of Neel's artistic production and reception also draws upon theories of embodiment that include Transformation, the Kinship I, and The Four Sacred Directions as well as ideals of objectivity embedded in the disciplines of art history and law. This study concludes that Neel's use of photography's reproductive capabilities, his references to the importance of copying in the aesthetic of carving, his knowledge of media outlets, and his life of migration have enabled him to slip himself and his images into multiple discursive communities that espouse distinct aesthetic sensibilities and political agendas. The import of Neel's project lies in his capacity to engage his viewers with, and thus reveal, political and aesthetic differences that provoke debate about group identity, about his own identity and about the meaning of his art.
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