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Marvin Cohodas, a scholar of Louisa Keyser, notes that her early years were a time of experimentation when she explored different possibilities with new shapes and designs. Her most extraordinary innovation was the degikup, a form initially based on Pomo baskets. Keyser developed the degikup into a distinct expression, emphasizing form and design by gradually elevating the horizontal, or shoulder, and by refining her designs to create an elegantly unified composition.
Exhibition History"The 45th Annual Winter Antique Show," New York, NY, January 12, 1999 – January 25, 1999.
"Art Des Indiens D'Amerique Du Nord Dans La Collection D'Eugene Thaw," Mona Bismarck Foundation, Paris, France, Somogy Editions D'Art, January 21, 2000 - March 18, 2000.
"Art of the American Indian: The Thaw Collection," The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH, March 2, 2010 - May 30, 2010; Minneapolis Museum of Art, Minneapolis, MN, October 24, 2010 - January 9, 2011; Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, TX, April 24, 2011 - September 23, 2011; Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indianapolis, IN, December 4, 2011 - February 12, 2012.
"American Indian Art from the Fenimore Art Museum: The Thaw Collection," The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY, May 9, 2017 - October 8, 2017.
"American Indian Art from the Fenimore Art Museum: The Thaw Collection," Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute, Utica, NY, October 13, 2018 - December 31, 2018.
"Hearts of Our People" Minneapolis Institute of Art, May 26, 2016 - August 18, 2019; 216 Frist Art Center for Visual Art, September 29, 2019 - January 12, 2020; 217 Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian Institution, February 23, 2020 - May 17, 2020 (extended to August 2, 2020); 218 Philbrook Museum of Art, Tulsa, OK, June 28, 2020 - September 20, 2020 (extended to October 7, 2020 - January 3, 2021).
ProvenanceAbe and Amy Cohn, The Emporium Company, Carson City, Nevada; Gottlieb A. Steiner (F1), Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Elsa Steiner Huff, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; William S. Huff, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
BibliographyDavis, Sam. "The Nevada Piutes" Sunset Magazine, September 1905, 15:458-460.
The Emporium Company. How the L.K. Baskets Are Made. Los Angeles, California: Le Berthon Publishing Co., [1905-1906].
"Aged Squaw's Baskets Worth a Thousand Each." Los Angeles Examiner. December 19, 1906.
Cohn, Amy C. "Arts and Crafts of the Nevada Indians." First Biennial Report of the Nevada Historical Society 1907-1908. Carson City, Nevada: State Printing Office, 1909, pp.78-79 & pl. following p.78.
Keller, Clara D. "Life at Lake Tahoe" Los Angeles Time Illustrated Weekly Magazine. July 17, 1910, 74-75.
"Mrs. Abe Cohn Won Honors in Goldfield." Carson City News. March 10, 1914.
"Women's Club Notes." Carson City News. March 15, 1914.
"Indian Baskets Bring High Figure." Nevada Appeal. April, 1, 1914.
"Greatest Price Has Been Paid for the Greatest Washoe Basket." The Carson City News, April 1, 1914, p.1.
"Greatest Price Has Been Paid for the Greatest Washoe Basket." The Nevada American. April 4, 1914.
San Francisco Examiner. April 4, 1914. [cited in Zigmond, p. 324].
MacNaughton, Clara. "Dat-So-La-Lee" General Federation of Women's Clubs Magazine. W1915, Vol. XIV, No.2., p.14 [caption transposed with another photo on the same page].
Carnegie Museum. The Carnegie Museum, Pittsburgh. Eighteenth Annual Report of the Director. 1915, p.34 & plate following p.34.
"Rare Indian Baskets in Carnegie Museum." The Carson City News, May 20, 1915, p.1.
"Indians Display Skill in Native Arts at Exposition." St. Louis Dispatch. October 21, 1919, p.3.7/15/04.
Summerfield, Esther. "A Weaver of Dreams and Memories." Nevada State Journal. December 13, 1925, second section, front page.
"Dot-So-La-Lee Buried with Treasured Basket." Carson Daily Appeal, December 7, 1925, p.1.
"Dat-So-La-Lee, Nation's Best Indian Basket Weaver, Passes" Nevada State Journal, December 7, 1925.
Smaill, Robert Leslie. "Carson Gives Wonder Show in Basketry." The San Francisco Examiner. August 15, 1926.
"Dat-So-La-Lee, Premier Washoe Weaver, Dead." The Carson City News, December 8, 1925, p.1.
Standard Oil Company of California "Dat-So-La-Lee, An American Artist." Standard Oil Bulletin, July 1931, pp.12-14.
Scrugham, James G. ed. Nevada: A Narrative of the Conquest of a Frontier Land." The American Historical Society, 1935, 3 vols, p.114.
Brave, Joanna. "Basketry of the Paiute and Washoe Indians of Nevada. Indians at Work Vol 4 (3), 1936, p.46.
Nevada State Museum. "Appendix to Journals of State and Assembly. Biennial Report of the Directors of the Nevada State Museum to the Governor of the State of Nevada for the Period of December 1 1944 - July 1, 1946" Nevada:Nevada State Museum, 1947, Vol. 1, p.13.
Field, Clark. The Art and the Romance of Indian Basketry. Tusla, Oklahoma: Philbrook Art Center, 1964, n.p.
Cerveri, Doris. "Dat-So-La-Lee: Queen of the Basketmakers." Real West. November 1968, Vol. XI, No.65, p.42.
Zigmond, Maurice L. "Got[t]lieb Adam Steiner and the G. A. Steiner Museum." Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology. Vol. 1 No. 2, (1979): p.324, p.328, fig. 6 & p.330.
Cohodas, Marvin. "The Washoe Florescence 1895-1935." Vanguard, Vol. 8, No.5 (June/July 1979): 7.
Cohodas, Marvin. "Washoe Basketry." American Indian Basketry and Other Native Arts. Vol. III, No.4, (1983): 8.
Cohodas, Marvin. "Washoe Innovators and their Patrons." In The Arts of the North American Indian: Native Traditions in Evolution. New York: Hudson Hills Press, 1986, p.208.
Bates, Craig, and Martha J. Lee. Tradition and Innovation: A Basket History of the Indians of the Yosemite-Mono Lake Area. Yosemite, California: Yosemite Association, 1990, p.86, fig. 163.
Nunley, John W. and Janet Berlo. Native North American Art. Saint Louis, Missouri: Saint Louis Art Museum, 1991, p.40.
Cohodas, Marvin. "Louisa Keyser and the Cohns: Mythmaking and Basket Making in the American West." In The Early Years of Native American Art History. Janet C. Berlo, ed. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1992, pp.103-104, p.115 & p.129. And Berlo, Janet. "Introduction: The Formative Years of Native American Art History." p.8.
Berlo, Janet C. and Ruth B. Phillips. Native North American Art. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998, p.136.
Perriot, Francoise and Slim Batteux, trans. Arts de Indiens d’Amerique du Nord: Dans la Collection d’ Eugene et Clare Thaw. Paris: Somogy editions e’Art. 1999, pp. 104-105, fig. 86.
Vincent, Gilbert et al. Art of the North American Indians: The Thaw Collection. Cooperstown, New York: Fenimore Art Museum, 2000, pp.285-287.
Merrill, Linda, Lisa Rogers, and Kaye Passamore. "Picturing America: Teacher's Resource Book." Washington, DC: National Endowment for the Humanities, 2008, p. 5, 1-A.
Murdock, Michelle, ed. 50 at 20: Masterpieces of American Indian Art from the Thaw Collection. Cooperstown, NY: Fenimore Art Museum, 2015, p. 24.
Fognell, Eva and Alexander Brier Marr, eds. Art of the North American Indians: The Thaw Collection at the Fenimore Art Museum, 2nd ed. Cooperstown, New York: Fenimore Art Museum, 2016, p. 304.
Artist
Louisa Keyser (Datsolalee)
(c. 1850 - 1925, Washoe)
Beacon Lights
Date1904-1905
DimensionsOverall: 11 1/4 × 16 in. (28.6 × 40.6 cm)
Object numberT0751
Credit LineGift of Eugene Victor Thaw Art Foundation
Photograph by Richard Walker
Label TextLouisa Keyser worked under the patronage of Abe and Amy Cohn, the owners of the Emporium Company in Carson City, Nevada. The Cohns documented her work as an artist, preserving a comprehensive history that is unparalleled in Native American art history. This patronage endured for 30 years, ending with Keyser’s death in 1925. Beacon Lights epitomizes Louisa Keyser’s greatest works in which she perfected the degikup and illustrates why she is the most famous basket weaver in the world. Beacon Lights was finished at the close of her first decade with the Cohns, and it suggests the heights of artistic achievement that an artist can attain in an environment in which she is freed from economic concerns. Marvin Cohodas, a scholar of Louisa Keyser, notes that her early years were a time of experimentation when she explored different possibilities with new shapes and designs. Her most extraordinary innovation was the degikup, a form initially based on Pomo baskets. Keyser developed the degikup into a distinct expression, emphasizing form and design by gradually elevating the horizontal, or shoulder, and by refining her designs to create an elegantly unified composition.
Exhibition History"The 45th Annual Winter Antique Show," New York, NY, January 12, 1999 – January 25, 1999.
"Art Des Indiens D'Amerique Du Nord Dans La Collection D'Eugene Thaw," Mona Bismarck Foundation, Paris, France, Somogy Editions D'Art, January 21, 2000 - March 18, 2000.
"Art of the American Indian: The Thaw Collection," The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH, March 2, 2010 - May 30, 2010; Minneapolis Museum of Art, Minneapolis, MN, October 24, 2010 - January 9, 2011; Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, TX, April 24, 2011 - September 23, 2011; Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indianapolis, IN, December 4, 2011 - February 12, 2012.
"American Indian Art from the Fenimore Art Museum: The Thaw Collection," The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY, May 9, 2017 - October 8, 2017.
"American Indian Art from the Fenimore Art Museum: The Thaw Collection," Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute, Utica, NY, October 13, 2018 - December 31, 2018.
"Hearts of Our People" Minneapolis Institute of Art, May 26, 2016 - August 18, 2019; 216 Frist Art Center for Visual Art, September 29, 2019 - January 12, 2020; 217 Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian Institution, February 23, 2020 - May 17, 2020 (extended to August 2, 2020); 218 Philbrook Museum of Art, Tulsa, OK, June 28, 2020 - September 20, 2020 (extended to October 7, 2020 - January 3, 2021).
ProvenanceAbe and Amy Cohn, The Emporium Company, Carson City, Nevada; Gottlieb A. Steiner (F1), Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Elsa Steiner Huff, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; William S. Huff, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
BibliographyDavis, Sam. "The Nevada Piutes" Sunset Magazine, September 1905, 15:458-460.
The Emporium Company. How the L.K. Baskets Are Made. Los Angeles, California: Le Berthon Publishing Co., [1905-1906].
"Aged Squaw's Baskets Worth a Thousand Each." Los Angeles Examiner. December 19, 1906.
Cohn, Amy C. "Arts and Crafts of the Nevada Indians." First Biennial Report of the Nevada Historical Society 1907-1908. Carson City, Nevada: State Printing Office, 1909, pp.78-79 & pl. following p.78.
Keller, Clara D. "Life at Lake Tahoe" Los Angeles Time Illustrated Weekly Magazine. July 17, 1910, 74-75.
"Mrs. Abe Cohn Won Honors in Goldfield." Carson City News. March 10, 1914.
"Women's Club Notes." Carson City News. March 15, 1914.
"Indian Baskets Bring High Figure." Nevada Appeal. April, 1, 1914.
"Greatest Price Has Been Paid for the Greatest Washoe Basket." The Carson City News, April 1, 1914, p.1.
"Greatest Price Has Been Paid for the Greatest Washoe Basket." The Nevada American. April 4, 1914.
San Francisco Examiner. April 4, 1914. [cited in Zigmond, p. 324].
MacNaughton, Clara. "Dat-So-La-Lee" General Federation of Women's Clubs Magazine. W1915, Vol. XIV, No.2., p.14 [caption transposed with another photo on the same page].
Carnegie Museum. The Carnegie Museum, Pittsburgh. Eighteenth Annual Report of the Director. 1915, p.34 & plate following p.34.
"Rare Indian Baskets in Carnegie Museum." The Carson City News, May 20, 1915, p.1.
"Indians Display Skill in Native Arts at Exposition." St. Louis Dispatch. October 21, 1919, p.3.7/15/04.
Summerfield, Esther. "A Weaver of Dreams and Memories." Nevada State Journal. December 13, 1925, second section, front page.
"Dot-So-La-Lee Buried with Treasured Basket." Carson Daily Appeal, December 7, 1925, p.1.
"Dat-So-La-Lee, Nation's Best Indian Basket Weaver, Passes" Nevada State Journal, December 7, 1925.
Smaill, Robert Leslie. "Carson Gives Wonder Show in Basketry." The San Francisco Examiner. August 15, 1926.
"Dat-So-La-Lee, Premier Washoe Weaver, Dead." The Carson City News, December 8, 1925, p.1.
Standard Oil Company of California "Dat-So-La-Lee, An American Artist." Standard Oil Bulletin, July 1931, pp.12-14.
Scrugham, James G. ed. Nevada: A Narrative of the Conquest of a Frontier Land." The American Historical Society, 1935, 3 vols, p.114.
Brave, Joanna. "Basketry of the Paiute and Washoe Indians of Nevada. Indians at Work Vol 4 (3), 1936, p.46.
Nevada State Museum. "Appendix to Journals of State and Assembly. Biennial Report of the Directors of the Nevada State Museum to the Governor of the State of Nevada for the Period of December 1 1944 - July 1, 1946" Nevada:Nevada State Museum, 1947, Vol. 1, p.13.
Field, Clark. The Art and the Romance of Indian Basketry. Tusla, Oklahoma: Philbrook Art Center, 1964, n.p.
Cerveri, Doris. "Dat-So-La-Lee: Queen of the Basketmakers." Real West. November 1968, Vol. XI, No.65, p.42.
Zigmond, Maurice L. "Got[t]lieb Adam Steiner and the G. A. Steiner Museum." Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology. Vol. 1 No. 2, (1979): p.324, p.328, fig. 6 & p.330.
Cohodas, Marvin. "The Washoe Florescence 1895-1935." Vanguard, Vol. 8, No.5 (June/July 1979): 7.
Cohodas, Marvin. "Washoe Basketry." American Indian Basketry and Other Native Arts. Vol. III, No.4, (1983): 8.
Cohodas, Marvin. "Washoe Innovators and their Patrons." In The Arts of the North American Indian: Native Traditions in Evolution. New York: Hudson Hills Press, 1986, p.208.
Bates, Craig, and Martha J. Lee. Tradition and Innovation: A Basket History of the Indians of the Yosemite-Mono Lake Area. Yosemite, California: Yosemite Association, 1990, p.86, fig. 163.
Nunley, John W. and Janet Berlo. Native North American Art. Saint Louis, Missouri: Saint Louis Art Museum, 1991, p.40.
Cohodas, Marvin. "Louisa Keyser and the Cohns: Mythmaking and Basket Making in the American West." In The Early Years of Native American Art History. Janet C. Berlo, ed. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1992, pp.103-104, p.115 & p.129. And Berlo, Janet. "Introduction: The Formative Years of Native American Art History." p.8.
Berlo, Janet C. and Ruth B. Phillips. Native North American Art. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998, p.136.
Perriot, Francoise and Slim Batteux, trans. Arts de Indiens d’Amerique du Nord: Dans la Collection d’ Eugene et Clare Thaw. Paris: Somogy editions e’Art. 1999, pp. 104-105, fig. 86.
Vincent, Gilbert et al. Art of the North American Indians: The Thaw Collection. Cooperstown, New York: Fenimore Art Museum, 2000, pp.285-287.
Merrill, Linda, Lisa Rogers, and Kaye Passamore. "Picturing America: Teacher's Resource Book." Washington, DC: National Endowment for the Humanities, 2008, p. 5, 1-A.
Murdock, Michelle, ed. 50 at 20: Masterpieces of American Indian Art from the Thaw Collection. Cooperstown, NY: Fenimore Art Museum, 2015, p. 24.
Fognell, Eva and Alexander Brier Marr, eds. Art of the North American Indians: The Thaw Collection at the Fenimore Art Museum, 2nd ed. Cooperstown, New York: Fenimore Art Museum, 2016, p. 304.
On View
On view
