Search

Few contemporary artists before the 1990s explored the negative impact of the Spanish in the Southwest, but unreflective celebrations of the Columbus Quincentennial brought about portrayals of a more complicated legacy of Columbus's arrival in the Americas—especially by Indigenous artists. Through a series of etchings, Floyd Solomon of Laguna and Zuni heritage undertook a visual recounting of Pueblo history using Indigenous knowledge positioned to reimagine a history that is known largely from non-Native records. While Solomon originally envisioned more than forty etchings, he ultimately completed just twenty. From nightmarish visions of the Spanish that preceded their arrival to the subsequent return of the Spanish and their continuing effects on the Pueblo people, Solomon provides a powerful visual record. These insightful, probing etchings are included in this important full-color volume showcasing Solomon's work and legacy. In Reimagining History from an Indigenous Perspective, Joyce M. Szabo positions Solomon among his contemporaries, making this vibrant artist and his remarkable vision broadly available to audiences both familiar with his work and those seeing it for the first time.

In Messianic Fulfillments Hayes Peter Mauro examines the role of Christian evangelical movements in shaping American identity in the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries. Focusing on Christianity's fervent pursuit of Native American salvation, Mauro discusses Anglo American artists influenced by Christian millenarianism, natural history, and racial science in America. Artists on the colonial, antebellum, and post–Civil War frontier graphically projected their idealization of Christian-based identity onto the bodies of American Indians.Messianic Fulfillments explores how Puritans, Quakers, Mormons, and members of other Christian millenarian movements viewed Native peoples as childlike, primitive, and in desperate need of Christianization lest they fall into perpetual sin and oblivion and slip into eternal damnation. Christian missionaries were driven by the idea that catastrophic Native American spiritual failure would, in Christ's eyes, reflect on the shortcomings of those Christians tasked with doing the work of Christian “charity” in the New World. With an interdisciplinary approach drawing from religious studies and the histories of popular science and art, Messianic Fulfillments explores ethnohistorical encounters in colonial and nineteenth-century America through the lens of artistic works by evangelically inspired Anglo American artists and photographers. Mauro takes a critical look at a variety of visual mediums to illustrate how evangelical imagery influenced definitions of “Americaness,” and how such images reinforced or challenged historically prevailing conceptions of what it means (and looks like) to be American.

La publicación es una investigación sobre la propuesta indigenista encontrada en el lenguaje pictórico de las obras del reconocido pintor arequipeño Jorge Vinatea Reinoso. La autora del libro, Philarine Villanueva, se enfoca en el análisis del espacio cultural andino de las obras del artista y cómo su visión personal buscó destacar la imagen de hombres y mujeres de la sierra sur del Perú en sus pinturas, por medio de técnicas pictóricas que priorizan la presencia de sus personajes y las acciones de sus vidas cotidianas. El libro presenta, en una primera parte, un recuento histórico sobre la producción artística de Jorge Vinatea Reinoso y en su contexto social, político y cultural. En la segunda parte, la autora, mediante el análisis de las pinturas A Amancaes, Tantahuasi y Caballitos de totora, deconstruye el estilo pictórico del pintor y cómo las estructuras, trazos y colores responden a su propia cosmovisión andina. Finalmente, se explican los hallazgos de las composiciones dinámicas de las obras analizadas y la manera en que estas logran generar una experiencia sensorial sobre un indigenismo crítico y endógeno.

Express your creativity by stitching one of the most fascinating traditions of Native Americans. 6 unique dream catchers are included in this book. Each design is made using #2 Omega Nylon cord, a metal craft ring or a wooden embroidery hoop and embellished with beads and feathers.

Throughout the nineteenth century, the land known as “Indian Territory” was populated by diverse cultures, troubled by shifting political boundaries, and transformed by historical events that were colorful, dramatic, and often tragic. Beyond its borders, most Americans visualized the area through the pictures produced by non-Native travelers, artists, and reporters—all with differing degrees of accuracy, vision, and skill. The images in Picturing Indian Territory, and the eponymous exhibit it accompanies, conjure a wildly varied vision of Indian Territory's past. Spanning nearly nine decades, these artworks range from the scientific illustrations found in English naturalist Thomas Nuttall's journal to the paintings of Frederic Remington, Henry Farny, and Charles Schreyvogel. The volume's three essays situate these works within the historical narratives of westward expansion, the creation of an “Indian Territory” separate from the rest of the United States, and Oklahoma's eventual statehood in 1907. James Peck focuses on artists who produced images of Native Americans living in this vast region during the pre–Civil War era. In his essay, B. Byron Price picks up the story at the advent of the Civil War and examines newspaper and magazine reports as well as the accounts of government functionaries and artist-travelers drawn to the region by the rapidly changing fortunes of the area's traditional Indian cultures in the wake of non-Indian settlement. Mark Andrew White then looks at the art and illustration resulting from the unrelenting efforts of outsiders who settled Indian and Oklahoma Territories in the decades before statehood. Some of the artworks featured in this volume have never before been displayed; some were produced by more than one artist; others are anonymous. Many were completed by illustrators on-site, as the events they depicted unfolded, while other artists relied on written accounts and vivid imaginations. Whatever their origin, these depictions of the people, places, and events of “Indian Country” defined the region for contemporary American and European audiences. Today they provide a rich visual record of a key era of western and Oklahoma history—and of the ways that art has defined this important cultural crossroads.

In Indians in Color, noted cultural critic Norman K. Denzin addresses the acute differences in the treatment of artwork about Native America created by European-trained artists compared to those by Native artists. In his fourth volume exploring race and culture in the New West, Denzin zeroes in on painting movements in Taos, New Mexico over the past century. Part performance text, part art history, part cultural criticism, part autoethnography, he once again demonstrates the power of visual media to reify or resist racial and cultural stereotypes, moving us toward a more nuanced view of contemporary Native American life. In this book, Denzin-contrasts the aggrandizement by collectors and museums of the art created by the early 20th century Taos Society of Artists under railroad sponsorship with that of indigenous Pueblo painters;-shows how these tensions between mainstream and Native art remains today; and-introduces a radical postmodern artistic aesthetic of contemporary Native artists that challenges notions of the “noble savage.”

Attracted to the rich ceremonial life and unique architecture of the New Mexico pueblos, many early-twentieth-century artists depicted Pueblo peoples, places, and culture in paintings. These artists'encounters with Pueblo Indians fostered their awareness of Native political struggles and led them to join with Pueblo communities to champion Indian rights. In this book, art historian Sascha T. Scott examines the ways in which non-Pueblo and Pueblo artists advocated for American Indian cultures by confronting some of the cultural, legal, and political issues of the day. Scott closely examines the work of five diverse artists, exploring how their art was shaped by and helped to shape Indian politics. She places the art within the context of the interwar period, 1915–30, a time when federal Indian policy shifted away from forced assimilation and toward preservation of Native cultures. Through careful analysis of paintings by Ernest L. Blumenschein, John Sloan, Marsden Hartley, and Awa Tsireh (Alfonso Roybal), Scott shows how their depictions of thriving Pueblo life and rituals promoted cultural preservation and challenged the pervasive romanticizing theme of the “vanishing Indian.” Georgia O'Keeffe's images of Pueblo dances, which connect abstraction with lived experience, testify to the legacy of these political and aesthetic transformations. Scott makes use of anthropology, history, and indigenous studies in her art historical narrative. She is one of the first scholars to address varied responses to issues of cultural preservation by aesthetically and culturally diverse artists, including Pueblo painters. Beautifully designed, this book features nearly sixty artworks reproduced in full color.

The 1876 events known as Custer's Last Stand, Battle of Little Big Horn, or Battle of Greasy Grass have been represented over 1000 times in various artistic media, from paintings to sculpture to fast food giveaways. Norman Denzin shows how these representations demonstrate the changing perceptions—often racist—of Native America by the majority culture, juxtaposed against very different readings shown in works composed by Native American artists. Consisting of autobiographical reminiscences, historical description, artistic representations, staged readings, and snippets of documents, this multilayered performance ethnography examines questions of memory, race, and violence against Native America, as symbolized by the changing interpretations of General Custer and his final battle.

Dartmouth College is in the unique position of having a magnificent large fresco by the Mexican muralist José Clemente Orozco (1883–1949) adorning the campus library. Completed by the artist in 1934 and titled The Epic of American Civilization, this work was promptly condemned by many alumni as being too critical of the college and academia. In response to Orozco's work, the illustrator and Dartmouth alumnus Walter Beach Humphrey (1892–1966) persuaded President Ernest Martin Hopkins to allow him to create another mural that would be more “Dartmouth” in character.Humphrey painted his mural four years after the completion of Orozco's frescoes on the walls of a faculty dining hall or “grill” at the college. Based on a drinking song by Richard Hovey, Dartmouth Class of 1885, it depicts a mythical founding of the college by Eleazar Wheelock. In the first panel, Wheelock, pulling along a five-hundred-gallon barrel of rum, is happily greeted by young American Indian men, whom he introduces to drunken revelry. The encounter, which takes place as the mural circles the grill room, also features many half-naked Indian women, one of whom reads Eleazer's copy of Gradus ad Parnassum upside down. Fast-forward to the early 1970s and the introduction of the Native American Program and co-education at Dartmouth College: the “Hovey Murals,” as the work was known, became so controversial that they were covered over, and the room itself closed. This book aims to provide not only the history (and art history) of this mural but also its wider cultural and historical contexts. The existence of both Orozco's fresco and Humphrey's mural on a college campus provides a unique juxtaposition of certain extremes of 1930s mural art. As such, their creation represents an important and fascinating historical moment while bringing into sharper focus some of the issues surrounding the politics of art and images. This book is intended as a textbook for those studying these murals and also as a guide to understanding how they fit into a troubling and difficult history of envisioning Native Americans by non-natives in American literature and popular art.Ebook Edition Note: Two illustrations have been redacted on pages 111 and 112.

In the past decade, Jane Ash Poitras, an Indigenous woman from northern Alberta, has emerged as one of the most important Canadian artists of her generation. Raised by a German widow who powdered her dark skin and tried to make her straight hair curl, Poitras did not begin to fully explore her Indigenous roots until adulthood. Seeking out her extended family and participating in profound cultural experiences, she began to discover the side of herself that she was denied as a child. At the same time, she made a commitment to her art. With the opportunity to pursue a masters degree at Columbia University in New York, Poitras was at the centre of the North American contemporary art scene. Together, these dual influences shaped Poitras unique style, one that combines representational strategies of postmodern art - collage, layering, overpainting, incorporation of found objects - with a deep commitment to the politics and issues common to Indigenous peoples. Cultural Memories and Imagined Futures situates Poitras'work in the national context of Canadian Indigenous art during the late 1980s and early 1990s, the period when she began to receive wide recognition. It is the first book-length study to examine Poitras'career as a whole, recounting her development as an artist, participation in major exhibitions, and recognition as a significant Canadian and international artist. Along with detailed analyses of specific artworks, Pamela McCallum has also compiled the most extensive bibliography of writings on Poitras to date.

One of Canada's most evocative modern painters, Cree artist Dale Auger was a gifted interpreter of First Nations culture, using the cross-cultural medium of art to portray scenes from the everyday to the sacred and dissemble stereotypes about Indigenous peoples. Medicine Paint is a collection of Auger's best work, reproduced in glorious full colour and reflecting the evolution of the artist's distinctive style. Including a revealing look back at his life and professional development, the book is a stunning tribute to the master Aboriginal artist. Auger uses bold, bright colours in his oil paintings to explore the intricate links between spirituality and the natural laws of the land. Birds, beasts and human forms are carried from the dreamworld onto canvas, their spirits channeled through his paintbrush and presented in brilliant yellows, mystic blues, vibrant reds and swirls of black. Infusing his subjects with energy, life and colour, Dale Auger masterfully presents scenes that are powerful, spiritual and inspiring. A bald eagle is majestic in flight against a bright blue sky. An elder makes a solemn offering to the Sky Being. Horses dance playfully in the frame for a sweat lodge. A warrior draws his bow and points it skyward.'Dale Auger's artwork is stunningly beautiful.'—Globe and Mail'To show expression through your brush that comes directly from the Creator's creative source is powerful. I truly feel blessed.'—Dale Auger

In 1585, the British painter and explorer John White created images of Carolina Algonquian Indians. These images were collected and engraved in 1590 by the Flemish publisher and printmaker Theodor de Bry and were reproduced widely, establishing the visual prototype of North American Indians for European and Euro-American readers. In this innovative analysis, Michael Gaudio explains how popular engravings of Native American Indians defined the nature of Western civilization by producing an image of its “savage other.” Going beyond the notion of the “savage” as an intellectual and ideological construct, Gaudio examines how the tools, materials, and techniques of copperplate engraving shaped Western responses to indigenous peoples. Engraving the Savage demonstrates that the early visual critics of the engravings attempted-without complete success-to open a comfortable space between their own “civil” image-making practices and the “savage” practices of Native Americans-such as tattooing, bodily ornamentation, picture-writing, and idol worship. The real significance of these ethnographic engravings, he contends, lies in the traces they leave of a struggle to create meaning from the image of the American Indian. The visual culture of engraving and what it shows, Gaudio reasons, is critical to grasping how America was first understood in the European imagination. His interpretations of de Bry's engravings describe a deeply ambivalent pictorial space in between civil and savage-a space in which these two organizing concepts of Western culture are revealed in their making. Michael Gaudio is assistant professor of art history at the University of Minnesota.

Exploring three major hubs of muralist activity in California, where indigenist imagery is prevalent, Walls of Empowerment celebrates an aesthetic that seeks to firmly establish Chicana/o sociopolitical identity in U.S. territory. Providing readers with a history and genealogy of key muralists'productions, Guisela Latorre also showcases new material and original research on works and artists never before examined in print. An art form often associated with male creative endeavors, muralism in fact reflects significant contributions by Chicana artists. Encompassing these and other aspects of contemporary dialogues, including the often tense relationship between graffiti and muralism, Walls of Empowerment is a comprehensive study that, unlike many previous endeavors, does not privilege non-public Latina/o art. In addition, Latorre introduces readers to the role of new media, including performance, sculpture, and digital technology, in shaping the muralist's'canvas.'Drawing on nearly a decade of fieldwork, this timely endeavor highlights the ways in which California's Mexican American communities have used images of indigenous peoples to raise awareness of the region's original citizens. Latorre also casts murals as a radical force for decolonization and liberation, and she provides a stirring description of the decades, particularly the late 1960s through 1980s, that saw California's rise as the epicenter of mural production. Blending the perspectives of art history and sociology with firsthand accounts drawn from artists'interviews, Walls of Empowerment represents a crucial turning point in the study of these iconographic artifacts.

This work takes an in-depth look at the world of comic books through the eyes of a Native American reader and offers frank commentary on the medium's cultural representation of the Native American people. It addresses a range of portrayals, from the bloodthirsty barbarians and noble savages of dime novels, to formulaic secondary characters and sidekicks, and, occasionally, protagonists sans paternal white hero, examining how and why Native Americans have been consistently marginalized and misrepresented in comics. Chapters cover early representations of Native Americans in popular culture and newspaper comic strips, the Fenimore Cooper legacy, the'white'Indian, the shaman, revisionist portrayals, and Native American comics from small publishers, among other topics.

Beginning in the late nineteenth century, the pueblos of the Southwest frequently inspired Anglo-American visitors to express their sense of wonder and enchantment in biblical references. Frank Hamilton Cushing's first account of Zuni pueblo described a setting that looked like'The Pools of Palestine.'Drawn to the Southwest, Mabel Dodge imagined'a garden of Eden, inhabited by an unfallen tribe of men and women.'There she was attracted to Tony Luhan, a Taos Indian who looked'like a Biblical figure.'When historian Jerold Auerbach first saw Edward S. Curtis's early twentieth-century photograph Taos Water Girls, he realized that'here, indeed, was the biblical Rebecca, relocated to New Mexico from ancient Haran, where Abraham's faithful servant had journeyed to find a suitable wife for Isaac. Rebecca with her water pitcher is as familiar a biblical icon as Noah and his ark or Moses with the stone tablets. Curtis had recast her as the archetypal Pueblo maiden.'Explorers in Eden uncovers an intriguing array of diaries, letters, memoirs, photographs, paintings, postcards, advertisements, anthropological field studies, and scholarly monographs. They reveal how Anglo-Americans disenchanted with modern urban industrial society developed a deep and rich fascination with pueblo culture through their biblical associations.

An insightful analysis of how art was used to create an independent Canadian national identity, often at the expense of First Nations representation.

The first major book-length study of the Dutch artist Albert Eckhout examining his fascinating works of art

Adela Breton (1849-1923) was a Victorian gentlewoman whose parents supported her education and artistic training. Anthropology and the'new'science of geology appealed to her father and soon captured her own interest. After her father's death in 1887, Adela began a lifetime of travel, exploring past cultures and landscapes. Often camping or staying in small villages, accompanied only by her Indian guide and companion, she created a pictorial account of the Mexican countryside in the 1890s. Famed archaeologist and fellow Briton Alfred P. Maudslay, aware of Adela's talents, asked her to return to Mexico and check his copies of the murals at the ruins of Chichén Itzá in the jungles of the Yucatán. This was the turning point in her career that would lead to international recognition as an archaeological copyist, researcher, and interpreter of the rapidly disappearing painted walls of ancient Mexico. Today her artwork is the only detailed color record of many aspects of the Pre-Columbian past. When the Mexican Revolution of 1910 ended her travels to Mexico, she turned her inquiring mind to linguistics and began her study and copying of rare colonial-era documents. Mary McVicker writes of Adela Breton, her independence from the strictures of Victorian life, her career as a pioneering artist-archaeologist, and the enduring significance of her work.

Title from eBook title screen (viewed on August 26, 2005).

Ask anyone the world over to identify a figure in buckskins with a feather bonnet, and the answer will be “Indian.” Many works of art produced by non-Native artists have reflected such a limited viewpoint. In American Indians in British Art, 1700–1840, Stephanie Pratt explores for the first time an artistic tradition that avoided simplification and that instead portrayed Native peoples in a surprisingly complex light. During the eighteenth century, the British allied themselves with Indian tribes to counter the American colonial rebellion. In response, British artists produced a large volume of work focusing on American Indians. Although these works depicted their subjects as either noble or ignoble savages, they also represented Indians as active participants in contemporary society. Pratt places artistic works in historical context and traces a movement away from abstraction, where Indians were symbols rather than actual people, to representational art, which portrayed Indians as actors on the colonial stage. But Pratt also argues that to view these images as mere illustrations of historical events or individuals would be reductive. As works of art they contain formal characteristics and ideological content that diminish their documentary value.

Ancestral Portraits is a retrospective of the art and life of Frederick R. McDonald, one of Alberta's most exciting Alberta First Nations artists working today, and a celebration of a rich Cree heritage. With one foot in the world of his ancestral peoples and the other in the realm of contemporary Canadian society, McDonald paints from a unique perspective and uses his art to communicate the culture and spirituality of his ancestors. Ancestral Portraits is a journey into the creative world of one of Canada's up and coming First Nations artists.