Robert Bruce Inverarity (July 5, 1909 – August 6, 1999) was an American artist, art educator, museum director, author, and anthropologist. He was the Washington State Director of the

Federal Arts Project The Federal Art Project (1935–1943) was a New Deal program to fund the visual arts in the United States. Under national director Holger Cahill, it was one of five Federal Project Number One projects sponsored by the Works Progress Administratio ...

from 1936 to 1939 and the Washington Arts Project from 1939 to 1941,The Great Depression in Washington State-Pacific Northwest Labor & Civil Rights Projects, University of Washington:''The Federal Art Project in Washington State'' by Eleanor Mahoney;http://depts.washington.edu/depress/FAP.shtml retvd 6 6 2015 working with many noted Pacific Northwest artists. Fascinated with the Indian tribes of the Northwest from early youth, he amassed a major collection of North Pacific Coast Native art and authored several works on the subject.Stevens Fine Art website, artist biography; http://www.stevensfineart.com/bio.php?artistId=1260&artist=Robert%20Bruce%20Inverarity retvd 6 4 15 As an artist he was best known for his woodblock and linocut printmaking, and for his photographs of artist friends such as

Max Ernst Max Ernst (2 April 1891 – 1 April 1976) was a German (naturalised American in 1948 and French in 1958) painter, sculptor, printmaker, graphic artist, and poet. A prolific artist, Ernst was a primary pioneer of the Dada movement and Surrealism ...

Dorothea Tanning Dorothea Margaret Tanning (25 August 1910 – 31 January 2012) was an American painter, printmaker, sculptor, writer, and poet. Her early work was influenced by Surrealism. Biography Dorothea Tanning was born and raised in Galesburg, Illin ...

Marcel Duchamp Henri-Robert-Marcel Duchamp (, , ; 28 July 1887 – 2 October 1968) was a French painter, sculptor, chess player, and writer whose work is associated with Cubism, Dada, and conceptual art. Duchamp is commonly regarded, along with Pablo Picasso ...

Man Ray Man Ray (born Emmanuel Radnitzky; August 27, 1890 – November 18, 1976) was an American visual artist who spent most of his career in Paris. He was a significant contributor to the Dada and Surrealism, Surrealist movements, although his t ...

Rockwell Kent Rockwell Kent (June 21, 1882 – March 13, 1971) was an American painter, printmaker, illustrator, writer, sailor, adventurer and voyager. Biography Rockwell Kent was born in Tarrytown, New York. Kent was of English descent. He lived much of ...

, and

Mark Tobey Mark George Tobey (December 11, 1890 – April 24, 1976) was an American painter. His densely structured compositions, inspired by Asian calligraphy, resemble Abstract expressionism, although the motives for his compositions differ philosophi ...

. He developed and directed the

Museum of International Folk Art The Museum of International Folk Art is a state-run institution in Santa Fe, New Mexico, United States. It is one of many cultural institutions operated by the New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs. History The museum was founded by Floren ...

Santa Fe, New Mexico Santa Fe ( ; , Spanish for 'Holy Faith'; tew, Oghá P'o'oge, Tewa for 'white shell water place'; tiw, Hulp'ó'ona, label=Tiwa language, Northern Tiwa; nv, Yootó, Navajo for 'bead + water place') is the capital of the U.S. state of New Mexico. ...

, the

Adirondack Museum Adirondack Experience (formerly Adirondack Museum), located on NY-30 in the hamlet of Blue Mountain Lake in Hamilton County, New York, is a museum dedicated to preserving the history of the Adirondacks. The museum is located on the site of an h ...

in Blue Mountain Lake, New York, and the

Philadelphia Maritime Museum The Independence Seaport Museum (formerly the Philadelphia Maritime Museum) was founded in 1961 and is located in the Penn's Landing complex along the Delaware River in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The collections at the Independence Seaport Museu ...

.Robert Bruce Inverarity papers, circa 1840s-1997; Smithsonian Archives of American Art; http://www.aaa.si.edu/collections/robert-bruce-inverarity-papers-6796/more retvd 6 4 15

Early life

Robert Bruce Inverarity was born July 5, 1909, in

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...

, the son of Duncan George Inverarity and Rosalind Wallace Dunlop Inverarity. His father was a manager and promoter of the Northwest vaudevillean theater circuit, and was a prominent member of various Seattle civic and social organizations; he had also served as an assistant to photographer

Edward S. Curtis Edward Sherriff Curtis (February 19, 1868 – October 19, 1952) was an American photographer and ethnologist whose work focused on the American West and on Native American people. Sometimes referred to as the "Shadow Catcher", Curtis travele ...

on the Harriman Alaska Expedition of 1899.University Libraries, University of Washington; Preliminary Guide to the Robert Bruce Inverarity Papers;http://digital.lib.washington.edu/findingaids/view?docId=InverarityRobertBruce4445.xml retvd 6 5 2015 The family lived in Canada during much of Bruce's youth, but moved back to Seattle when he was a teenager. From boyhood he had been interested in both art and Native American culture, and after graduating from Garfield High School in 1928 he undertook a 500-mile hike along the coasts of

Vancouver Island Vancouver Island is an island in the northeastern Pacific Ocean and part of the Canadian Provinces and territories of Canada, province of British Columbia. The island is in length, in width at its widest point, and in total area, while are o ...

, studying the legends of local Indian tribes and collecting artifacts.Social networks and archival context: Inverarity, Robert Bruce (1909-1999); http://socialarchive.iath.virginia.edu/ark:/99166/w61263md retvd 6 5 2015 By age eighteen the blonde, six-and-a-half foot tall, pipe-smoking young artist had already achieved a degree of local notoriety. A 1928 newspaper profile described him as "one of the most unusual people in Seattle, no matter how you look at him. He's Seattle's youngest recognized artist. He's taking an active part in introducing 'modern art' to a city that knew him as a school boy."

Career

While still attending high school in Seattle, Inverarity briefly studied under

, with whom he shared a studio. He later took over Tobey's position as a teacher at the

Cornish School Cornish College of the Arts (CCA) is a private art college in Seattle, Washington. It was founded in 1914. History Cornish College of the Arts was founded in 1914 as the Cornish School of Music, by Nellie Cornish (1876–1956), a teacher of p ...

. He then spent a few years in California working as an artist and teacher, with his paintings and prints shown in a number of solo and group exhibitions. He eventually moved to

Vancouver Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...

, B.C. where he was Director of the School of Creative Art. He also studied the culture and lore of the

Haida people Haida (, hai, X̱aayda, , , ) are an indigenous group who have traditionally occupied , an archipelago just off the coast of British Columbia, Canada, for at least 12,500 years. The Haida are known for their craftsmanship, trading skills, and ...

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...

Queen Charlotte Islands Haida Gwaii (; hai, X̱aaydag̱a Gwaay.yaay / , literally "Islands of the Haida people") is an archipelago located between off the northern Pacific coast of Canada. The islands are separated from the mainland to the east by the shallow Heca ...

(as of 2010, known as

Haida Gwaii Haida Gwaii (; hai, X̱aaydag̱a Gwaay.yaay / , literally "Islands of the Haida people") is an archipelago located between off the northern Pacific coast of Canada. The islands are separated from the mainland to the east by the shallow Hecat ...

) during a three-month trip in 1932. Returning to Seattle the following year, he joined the

University of Washington The University of Washington (UW, simply Washington, or informally U-Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 1861, Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast; it was established in Seattle a ...

Drama School as a puppetry instructor, and in 1938 published his highly regarded ''Manual of Puppetry''. Inverarity had a one-man show at

Edward Weston Edward Henry Weston (March 24, 1886 – January 1, 1958) was a 20th-century American photographer. He has been called "one of the most innovative and influential American photographers..." and "one of the masters of 20th century photography." ...

's gallery in Carmel, California in 1929, and another exhibition of his paintings that same year at the Blanding Sloan Gallery. In 1931 he exhibited with the Brooklyn Society of Etchers and had a one-man show at the Hudson Bay Company in Vancouver, BC. His work was shown at

Gump's Gump's is a luxury American home furnishings and home décor retailer, founded in 1861 in San Francisco, California. The company was acquired by the Chachas family in June 2019 and announced that it would be opening a San Francisco location for th ...

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

in 1935, and he had a piece exhibited at the

1939 New York World's Fair The 1939–40 New York World's Fair was a world's fair held at Flushing Meadows–Corona Park in Queens, New York, United States. It was the second-most expensive American world's fair of all time, exceeded only by St. Louis's Louisiana Purchas ...

. He became a member of the Northwest Printmakers Society, the California Watercolor Society, and the Royal Society of Arts, London. Inverarity took a leave of absence from the University of Washington to become, in 1936, State Director of the

Federal Art Project The Federal Art Project (1935–1943) was a New Deal program to fund the visual arts in the United States. Under national director Holger Cahill, it was one of five Federal Project Number One projects sponsored by the Works Progress Administrati ...

. In this capacity he provided employment for many notable artists (including William Cumming,

Helmi Juvonen Helmi Dagmar Juvonen (January 17, 1903 – October 17, 1985) was an American artist active in Seattle, Washington. Although she worked in a wide variety of media, she is best known for her prints, paintings, and drawings. She is associated with t ...

Morris Graves Morris Graves (August 28, 1910 – May 5, 2001) was an American painter. He was one of the earliest Modern artists from the Pacific Northwest to achieve national and international acclaim. His style, referred to by some reviewers as Mysticism, ...

, Carl Morris, Richard V. Correll,

Hannes Bok Hannes Bok, pseudonym for Wayne Francis Woodard (, ; July 2, 1914 – April 11, 1964), was an American artist and illustrator, as well as an amateur astrologer and writer of fantasy fiction and poetry. He painted nearly 150 covers for various sc ...

Guy Anderson Guy Anderson (November 20, 1906 – April 30, 1998) was an American artist known primarily for his oil painting who lived most of his life in the Puget Sound region of the United States. His work is in the collections of numerous museums inc ...

, Hilda Grossman, Malcolm Roberts,

Andrew Chinn Andrew Chinn (1915–1996) was a Chinese-American artist and art educator, active in the Pacific Northwest from the early 1930s through the 1990s. He is known for his distinctive style of watercolor painting and printmaking, and is associated wi ...

, Jacob Elshin, Fay Chong, Julius Twohy, Z. Vanessa Helder,

Joseph Solman Joseph Solman (January 25, 1909 – April 16, 2008) was an American painter, a founder of The Ten, a group of New York City Expressionist painters in the 1930s. His best known works include his "Subway Gouaches" depicting travelers on the New ...

, James FitzGerald, Kenneth Downer, and Ruth Egri) and oversaw the creation of the popular Spokane Art Center. His tenure was not without controversy. Artists and financial backers of the program questioned his management style and artistic credentials, while political concerns threatened the existence of the FAP (which became, in 1939, the Washington Arts Project). Inverarity, however, managed to retain the directorship until the program was ended by wartime priorities early in 1942. With American involvement in the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, Inverarity served as the U.S. Navy's Chief of Design for Camouflage (1941-1943), and later as an official Navy war artist (1943-1945) Following the war, Inverarity completed his formal education. He earned Bachelor's degrees in art and anthropology from the University of Washington in 1946, and then studied with

Hilaire Hiler Hilaire Harzberg Hiler (July 16, 1898 – January 19, 1966) was an American artist, psychologist, and color theoretician who worked in Europe and United States during the mid-20th century. At home and abroad, Hiler worked as a muralist, jazz mu ...

at Fremont College in Los Angeles, receiving a Master's degree in fine arts in 1947 and a Ph.D. in 1948. This period also saw the publication of several books he had authored, including ''Masks and Marionettes of the Northwest Coast Indians'' (1940), ''Moveable Masks and Figures of the North Pacific Coast Indians'' (1941), ''Northwest Coast Indian Art'' (1946), and ''The Art of the Northwest Coast Indians'' (1950). Although Inverarity ceased exhibiting his work in 1941, he continued creating art, including illustrations for his and other books, and continued with his longtime interest in photography. Among his best-known works are his portraits of artist friends such as Glenn Wessels,

, and

Stanton Macdonald-Wright Stanton Macdonald-Wright (July 8, 1890 – August 22, 1973), was a modern American artist. He was a co-founder of Synchromism, an early abstract, color-based mode of painting, which was the first American avant-garde art movement to receive inte ...

. Combining his interests in art and anthropology, Inverarity became the founding director of the

in Santa Fe, New Mexico, in 1949. During his five years as director, the museum participated in a pilot study for an innovative system of coding visual files. Inverarity also remained active with the American Anthropological Association and the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and wrote several articles for anthropological journals. When Inverarity was fired by the Museum of International Folk Art in 1954, most of the staff resigned in protest, triggering an investigation by the American Association of Museums. He went on to serve as director of the

in Blue Mountain Lake, New York from 1954 to 1965. After a period working as an illustrator and designer for the University of California Press, he returned to the East Coast in 1969 to serve as director of the Philadelphia Maritime Museum.

Later years

Inverarity retired in 1976 and moved to

La Jolla La Jolla ( , ) is a hilly, seaside neighborhood within the city of San Diego, California, United States, occupying of curving coastline along the Pacific Ocean. The population reported in the 2010 census was 46,781. La Jolla is surrounded on ...

, California. He sold his unique and extensive collection of Northern Coastal Native art and artifacts to the

British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...

for what he described as "a tidy sum". He died in La Jolla on August 6, 1999. The helmet logo used by the NFL's

Seattle Seahawks The Seattle Seahawks are a professional American football team based in Seattle. The Seahawks compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) West, which they rejoined in 2002 as ...

football team is based on an image of a Kwakwaka'wakw

transformation mask A transformation mask, also known as an opening mask, is a type of mask used by indigenous people of the Northwest Coast and Alaska in ritual dances. These masks usually depict an outer, animal visage, which the performer can open by pulling a s ...

taken from Inverarity's 1950 book ''Art of the Northwest Coast Indians''.Burke Museum website; http://www.burkemuseum.org/info/press_browse/mask_that_inspired_seattle_seahawks_logo_on_display_at_burke_museum_beginni; retvd 10 1 15

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Inverarity, Robert Bruce 1909 births 1999 deaths Federal Art Project administrators