Dive in to a stunning First Nations collection
Vancouver show highlights artworks assembled by Phil Nuytten
Phil Nuytten was an internationally renowned designer of deepsea diving equipment. But he had an artistic side that wasn’t as well known.
Of Métis descent, Nuytten was an accomplished carver, Kwakwakaᦤwakw trained by the legendary
artist Ellen Neel. He also had a large collection of Northwest Coast art by artists such as Neel, her grandfather Charlie James and her uncle Mungo Martin, among others.
Nuytten died May 13, 2023, at the age of 81.
Uno Langmann Fine Art (2117 Granville St.) has an exhibition of the Nuytten collection on display through March 16. Some of it is for sale, but many pieces will be going to institutions, including the U’Mista Cultural Centre in Alert Bay.
The first thing you notice when you walk into the exhibition is a giant totem pole. It was carved by Bill Holm of Seattle, a professor at the University of Washington who was the author of the seminal 1965 book, Northwest Coast Indian Art: An Analysis of Form.
Some people might recognize it because the three-metre-tall totem used to be at SeaTac airport. Nuytten bought it and installed it at his home in North Vancouver.
“His house was like a gallery,” said Jeannette Langmann of Langmann Fine Art. “The totem was in his front entrance.”
The Holm pole is unpainted cedar, but a dazzling Ellen Neel totem in the exhibition is painted in rich green, red, yellow, black and white. This may also look familiar to visitors because Neel carved one of the totem poles in Stanley Park.
Nuytten loved First Nations art as a child, and asked the curator of the Vancouver Museum who could teach him to carve. They recommended Neel, and the 11-year-old Nuytten went to her modest home a stone’s throw from Rogers Sugar to ask her for lessons.
She was a great teacher. The small Nuytten totem Hamatsa Raven, Bear Eating Orca Whale is as elegant and colourful as Neel’s own work.
Nuytten was a born entrepreneur. He started diving when he was 11, opened Canada’s first dive shop in Kitsilano when he was 16, and went on to found several companies, including Nuytco Research Ltd.
His most famous invention was the Newtsuit, which allowed divers to go to deep depths and became the standard for contained diving suits. He was a consultant with both NASA and James Cameron, the film director who made Titanic.
His business success helped him assemble an art collection by a who’s who of Northwest Coast artists, including Robert Davidson, Beau Dick, Dorothy Grant, Henry Hunt, Calvin Hunt, Matt James, Lelooska (Don Smith), Joe and Willie Seaweed, and John Livingston.
Seven pieces from his collection were included in a Vancouver Art Gallery exhibit, The Private Eye, which travelled to the McMichael Gallery in Ontario.
One of them is Numan (Old Man) by Don Smith, a yellow and red cedar mask of an old man’s head with wonderfully bushy eyebrows and beard. It’s a dance mask, and many parts move, which makes it come alive.
“Everything is articulated, even the eyebrows, so he can look happy or sad,” explains Langmann. “It’s really quite incredible.”
Nuytten commissioned many of the works in his collection, including a unique coffee table by John Livingston.
The round table features carvings of three orcas, which represent Nuytten, his wife Mary and their daughter Virginia. But the thing that really sets it apart is the middle, which has a distinctive nautical touch.
“It’s got a porthole in the centre,” said Langmann, “which was installed specifically for Phil.”