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Of the 15 to 16 pieces available for sale during that time, he’s been able to acquire all but a couple of them.
He said while there’s an “enormous level of curiosity” in Edenshaw’s work, the market “is in its infancy in a sense.
“I guess I have to say Art Toronto is a way to test the waters,” he said.
“In all likelihood, I might end up donating five or six works to the National Gallery or to (Vancouver Art Gallery) subject to what happens with the building.”
DEG is showing 19th century ledger drawings which were made by largely anonymous Indigenous artists from the Great Plains nations such as the Cheyenne, Arapaho, and Lakota.
In many of them, horses figure prominently. When the animal was introduced by the Spanish to the Comanche in the 17th century, Ellis said, it led to major changes among all the aboriginal people in what later became the U.S..
Ellis said ledger drawings are “one of the most important aspects of North American art history and most people don’t even know they exist.”
They’re called ledger drawings because accounting ledger books were a major source of paper for Indigenous people.
“The drawings are both records of actual events and articulate the cumulative acquisition of spiritual power and status,” the Donald Ellis Gallery said in a news release.
Donald Ellis Gallery will donate 10 per cent of all sales to Canadian organizations addressing the legacy of residential schools, supporting Indigenous education and mental health, and promoting reconciliation between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Canadians. The gallery said clients can choose to support one of the following charitable organizations:
Indspire, The Legacy of Hope Foundation, or The Gord Downie & Chanie Wenjack Fund.
Art Toronto is from Wednesday, Oct.28 to Sunday, Nov. 8.
