The Vancouver Art Gallery just received a landmark gift: 23 works by celebrated Haida artist Guud san glans Robert Davidson (b. 1946), donated by TELUS President and CEO Darren Entwistle and his family. Spanning three decades, the trove deepens the Gallery’s holdings of one of the most influential artists working in Canada—an innovator who revitalized Northwest Coast formline through a distinctly contemporary lens.
“Guud san glans Robert Davidson is among the most influential artists working in Canada and beyond,” says Eva Respini, Interim Co-CEO and Curator at Large. “This remarkable gift significantly strengthens our holdings. Each painting and sculpture offers a lens into what Davidson has termed a ‘contemporary-traditional’ aesthetic that spans decades. We are honoured to steward these vital works and excited to share them with the public.”
For Entwistle, the donation is both personal and civic. “Through the donation of these major works…my family and I are honoured to deepen our support of the Vancouver Art Gallery and publicly accessible art for our fellow Canadians,” he says, noting a family lineage of collecting Indigenous art dating back to the 1950s. “We are grateful to know that the Vancouver Art Gallery will ensure these inspiring and powerful works are studied, celebrated and preserved for the benefit of our citizens and future generations.”
A Living Lineage, Evolving Language
Davidson—great-grandson of master artist Charles Edenshaw and protégé of Bill Reid—has long been at the forefront of Haida art’s global renaissance. The Gallery’s relationship with the artist stretches back to 1967’s seminal Arts of the Raven, through 1993’s mid-career survey Eagle of the Dawn, to 2023’s Guud san glans Robert Davidson: A Line That Bends But Does Not Break.
“This gift allows us to fill an important gap in our collection of Davidson’s two-dimensional works,” says Richard Hill, the Gallery’s Smith Jarislowsky Senior Curator of Canadian Art. “We held a comprehensive representation up to the mid-1990s, but the past several decades—when he experimented boldly and brilliantly with Haida design—were missing. We never dared hope we could fill that gap with a single major collection.”
What’s in the Gift
The donation includes original paintings, masks and graphic works, with 15 key pieces from the 21st century—a period of notable transformation in Davidson’s practice.
- Early 2000s—Breaking Symmetry: Works such as Halibut Halibut Halibut (2000) and the painted drum Second Variation on Tri Neg Drum (2001) move beyond strict bilateral balance, expanding colour and compositional play.
- Mid-2000s—Minimalism & Abstraction: Chief of the Underworld (2006) and Sea Anemone (2008) foreground larger forms, a two-tone palette and singular figures, translating Haida visual language into strikingly pared-back statements.
- Late 2010s—Fluid, Figurative Energy: Whirlpool Kwaa K’iilee (2018), Whimsical (2018) and Diving Killer Whale (2019) braid reductive clarity with animated, graphic detail—hallmarks of Davidson’s evolving aesthetic.
“This gift is deeply meaningful to me,” says Guud san glans Robert Davidson. “Art has always been our way of recording history and carrying forward the voices of our ancestors. What excites me most is that it encompasses 30 years of my work and showcases my journey into modern abstractions where I began to break formline into its most simple form. The breadth and depth of this group depicts the resilience and richness of our culture.”
See It This Fall
Two works from the gift—Diving Killer Whale (2019) and Halibut Halibut Halibut (2000)—will be featured in We who have known tides, opening November 7 at the Vancouver Art Gallery. It’s a rare chance to encounter these pieces up close and trace the artist’s evolution across time.
Cultural Stewardship in Context
Located on Traditional Coast Salish Lands—including the Musqueam (xʷməθkʷəy̓əm), Squamish (Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Úxwumixw) and Tsleil-Waututh (səl̓ilw̓ətaʔɬ) Nations—the Gallery underscores its commitment to presenting and preserving Northwest Coast art. TELUS’s decades-long engagement with Indigenous artists, including commissions for TELUS Garden, adds further resonance: philanthropy that expands public access while honouring place, lineage and contemporary expression.
For Vancouver—and for audiences far beyond—this is more than a collection. It’s a living archive of design, story and innovation from an artist whose work continues to shape the visual language of the Northwest Coast. —Noa Nichol
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