Basketry, Craft & Art

Organikos

Sep 7

A coiled basket by Louisa Keyser (Dat So La Lee) of the Washoe people of Nevada, titled "Our Ancestors Were Great Hunters" (1905), with an oval degikup form, was made for the curio market. Her work comes to the Independent 20th Century fair this week. Donald Ellis Gallery

When craftwork is treated as artwork, valorization is the word that comes to mind. Not all craft is art, nor need it be; but we applaud the impetus of the Independent 20th Century fair:

The Artistry of Her Baskets Is Complex. So Is the Story Around Them.

A couple recognized the Washoe weaver Louisa Keyser's prodigious talent and spun myths to promote it. But her fortitude shines in work that today can be seen in museums and at the Independent 20th Century fair.

A portrait of Louisa Keyser, the most famous Washoe basket maker, who helped transform a utilitarian craft to fine art and was promoted at the time as a "princess" by a couple who sold her work. Donald Ellis Gallery

The Native American baskets sold in the early 1900s out of Abe Cohn's Emporium, a men's clothing store in Carson City, Nev., were exceptional. They were woven by Dat So La Lee, said to be a "princess" from the nearby Washoe people whose royal status permitted her alone to utilize a special weaving style.

The truth was less exciting. Dat So La Lee preferred her English name, Louisa Keyser. She was a Washoe woman, but the tales Cohn and his wife, Amy, spun about her — her esteemed heritage, her meeting with the Civil War general John C. Frémont — were myths.

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