Crawling Wolves by Art Thompson

Silkscreen Print

20 3/4" x 20 3/4"

1981

Edition of 160

Crawling Wolves were a recurring motif in Art Thompson's work (see also Crawling Wolf Dancer [Self Portrait]), most likely due to Art's membership of the Tlukwana or Wolf Society. High-ranking Nuu-chah-nulth men went through the Tlukwana, or Wolf Ritual as a rite of passage and transformation, and again and again, Art identifies himself and other humans with the Wolf. This print could be interpreted as Wolf Dancers taking part in the rites of Tlukwana.

Of note is this print's encircling dodecagon, a shape seldom (if ever) seen in Northwest Coast Indigenous art.