North_American_Indian_Art_World_of_Art_Ebook.pdf

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Indian Art David W. Penney

Thames & Hudson world of art

BEL-TIB NEW BOOKS 709. 01 Penney 2004

Penney, David W North American Indian art

31111022379422 l^lof

DAVID W. PENNEY

is

Vice President of

Museum Programs and

Curator of Native American Art

at the Detroit Institute of Arts.

GEORGE HORSE CAPTURE

is

Assistant to the Director at the

Museum of the American Indian and former Curator Indian Museum in Cody, Wyoming.

National Plains

DATE DUE a ug

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THAMES & HUDSON INC 500

Fifth

New

Avenue

York.

Printed

in

New

York 10

Singapore

1

10

S\

of the

187 illustrations.

80

in

color

North American Indian Art David

^^

Thames & Hudson

W. Penney

© 2004 Thames & Hudson Ltd, London All Rights

Reserved.

No

part of this publication

may be reproduced or

including any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, retrieval system, photocopy, recording or any other information storage and

transmitted

in

without prior permission

First

published

in

2004

Thames & Hudson

Inc.,

in

in

writing from the publisher.

paperback

500

Fifth

in

the United States of America by

Avenue.

New York. New York

thamesandhudsonusa.com

.

of Congress Catalog Card

Number 01 -2003108929

ISBN 0-500-20377-6 Frontispiece: I

Powwow

dancer.

photographed by Kenny Blackbird.

- ied

by John Morgan

Printed and

bound

in

Singapore by

C S Graphics

10 10 1

Contents

Foreword by George Horse Capture 7

Chapter

I

Chapter

2

Ancient Woodlands 26

Chapter

3

Eastern Woodlands 53

Introduction

9

Chapter 4

Southwest 79

Chapter

Plains

5

107

West

Chapter 6

Far

Chapter

Northwest Coast

7

127

141

Chapter 8

Arctic and Subarctic

Chapter

Artists of the

9

Maps

Modern and Contemporary World

213

Chronology

218

Select Bibliography

221

List of Illustrations

226

Index

230

166

189

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11

1

Foreword

It is

work with David

always an education and a pleasure to

Penney.

A perceptive and

intellectual scholar in the field,

he

keeps up on the literature, the developing art scene, and evolving thoughts, and then develops a theory, detailing

examples, and articulating and solidifying

methodology

clearly at

is

work

it

The book

here.

with numerous writing.

in his

it

chock

is

That full

of

interesting stories and information, as well as bold declarative

statements. In

the very

first

Indian people are

paragraph, Dr. Penney notes that American

still

vibrantly alive and

creating their

still

traditional art, as well as participating in age-old ceremonies.

This enlightenment started

in

the

is

a far cry

museum

field

from what

approach then was to preserve those at

all

costs, perhaps even to the

dark, far

from prying

responsibility

was to

As

a curator

I

was

relics

like

ago.

when

Our

from

I

standard

a long

ago time

degree of sealing them away

in

the

No one was to touch them; their sole exist. On occasion the most popular items eyes.

were allowed to be on away.

it

many moons

so

but the vast majority were locked

display,

was often scolded and instructed on how

to properly handle these ancient things from the lost past, but

something inside of

me

rendered the items

lifeless,

how

often reflected

Years later of the

I

American

felt

something was wrong. Isolation and the treatment of the objects

the Indian people themselves

Indian and the earlier restrictive

philosophy changed dramatically. collection,

we

invited

In

people - the

of the material - to have access to

the collection

were viewed.

Museum museum

had the privilege of joining the National

came

alive.

The

addition to caring for the tribal

members

their artifacts,

tribes

came

in

of the makers

and suddenly

and met their items

with great emotion. Instead of persisting with the older concept 2

Hamatsa dancer wearing cedar

bark clothing and a

from red cedar

mask carved

at a potlatch

ceremony given by Chief

Cranmer Columbia

in

WT

Alert Bay. British

of "don't touch: this material

is

ours,"

we embraced

the reality

that the tribes' ancestors had created these objects, and that

the collection

was

a living

one

that could

become

a

"connector"

between the ancestors, the descendants, and others. Over the years at this

museum

I

have witnessed such

joy. pain,

happiness.

awe, and reverence

when

tribal

understand the art and the

acknowledge

artist

was

a

good one.

American Indians with

goal to familiarize

Dr.

people experience their

The step we took to respect the people and

heritage.

their cultural

and

It

One

museums

remains our

their material, and to

spiritual needs.

Penney expresses other "stages of growth"

interesting book.

living

to better

in this

tragic limitation of ethnographic

has been the anonymity of the artists that created the

masterpieces on

With

display.

names are

rare exceptions their

we cannot even identify the tribe. Dr. Penney acknowledges that we don't know nearly enough about the art and the artist, and he also provocatively asks the question, "What is Native American?" He defines this in differing tiers that compel lost in time.

Often

additional study, and he goes

on to observe that the

towards addressing the question It is

it

is

here that the essence of what

speak we

could

could

all

step

first

established on a local

will

become

level.

art begins, and

if

communities across the

hear. Indian

continent are similarly engaged, and as such are an equal part of this

foundation.

together, they Dr.

When

of the local presentations are viewed

all

form "Native America."

Penney suggests that the researcher not only study the

art piece, but also find out life,

all

that

thoughts, relationships, family,

essentials,

because art

is

a

is

possible about the artist's

spirituality,

and other

testimony to existence. Together

these tenets have formed a force that has guided the

may allow

hand, and they

artist's

us a greater understanding not only

of the art, but also of the artist and their humanity.

This evolution of understanding

when many

is

a far cry

from long ago

anthropologists and other collectors obtained

ethnographic masterpieces from a suffering people for cents, without even troubling to obtain the artist's

But times are changing for American Indians, as intelligence are

becoming "connectors" between us

We are grateful to these

new

David and to others

is

will

make

life

them

in

we

all

easier as

George Horse Capture, National

Museum

Washington,

8

life

and

as well.

are recognizing

remarkable, coming from a non-artist, as

paints the items and interprets It

few

"stages of growth" of understanding. David's

perception

manner.

who

a

name.

DC.

of the American Indian,

his

mind

an insightful and helpful

become more

real.

Chapter

I

Introduction

American Indian art now Artists of Native

moment.

art today, at this

All over the United States, countless dancers, singers,

who

artists

American ancestry are making

work

will display their

fry-bread cooks prepare for a

in

booths, T-shirt vendors, and

weekend

"Gathering of Nations" website

lists

of

among them

Fourth of July 2003 weekend,

powwows. The

thirty-six

powwows

on-line

for the

the Navajo Fourth of

Powwow at Window Rock, Arizona, the 131 st Annual Quapaw Tribal Powwow in Quapaw, Oklahoma, the 35th Annual Ute Fourth of July Powwow at Fort Duchesne, Utah, and the 8th Annual Eastern Woodlands Intertribal Powwow in Lebanon,

July

Maine. At the beginning of each event, every dancer, dressed regalia perfected to the best of their abilities

up

in

and

in

talents, will line

order of seniority and parade into the arena

led by military

veterans carrying flags and accompanied by the singers of the lead

drum In

in

the heart-stopping spectacle

town

the

assemble

gifts

as

"Grand Entry"

[l].

of Alert Bay, British Columbia, several families

and goods to distribute at potlatches scheduled for

later in the year.

Some

will

feature

treasured family possessions like

known

Beau Dick,

will

[2].

masked dances presented

Skilled carvers in the

receive commissions to carve

Old ones preserved

in

as

community,

new masks.

family collections will be painted and

refurbished so they look their best during the ceremony.

Outside Santa

Fe,

Nancy Youngblood.

a

descendant of

a long

lineage of potters including matriarchs Margaret Tafoya and her

mother Sara of

clay.

Her

ultimately

Fina of Santa Clara Pueblo, builds

lustrous black

jars,

and polishes vessels

whose ribbed forms

derive

from the shapes of squashes and pumpkins, are

sought-after by collectors and

before she finishes them.

In

museums

[3].

Many

highly

are sold

the recent past, long lines of hopeful

purchasers formed early Indian

Market

she sold In

all

in

the morning

in

in

front of her booth at

Some walked away

Santa Fe.

disappointed after

she brought for the day.

Washington, D.C., Ho-Chunk (or Winnebago) sculptor

Truman Lowe, formerly the

chair of the art

department

at the

now serves as the curator National Museum of the American

University of Wisconsin, Madison, of

contemporary

Indian.

Among

art at the

many

his

that will feature Native 3

Ribbed melon

jar,

Nancy Youngblood.

made c.

upcoming exhibitions

plans for

American

artists

who work

is

one

electronic

in

media.

by

1995.

Some

Native Americans today criticize

museum

exhibits,

Youngblood's art builds upon the blackware traditions of her ancestral

Pueblo,

in

Mexico. Her

mother Mela Youngblood was potter, as

American

home, Santa Clara

New was

and very

many mothers before

that.

one, because they often situate

like this

a historical past, as

in

today. This failure to

if

there

is

no Native

frame the past from the

a

Mela's mother, the

Fina,

Indian culture

American culture

great Margaret Tafoya, Margaret's

mother Sara

popular media, and books

standpoint of the present

is

when

particularly unfortunate

considering Native American arts, since indigenous artists have

likely

always been, and

are now,

still

among those who most

actively

reconcile the traditions of the past with the circumstances of the present. Art

is,

and has been, one of the principal strategies of

Native American "survivance," to use writer Gerald Vizenor's term. While the

word

"survival"

term "survivance"

tenacity, the

memory and

adaptability,

summons up more

refers

images of last-gasp

to the

wisdom

of

and the strategies of resistance,

accommodation, and transformation. Histories of survivance connect the present with the

past, linking the

experiences of

the aforementioned artists active today with those of countless forebears, the generations of Native American artists

whose

creations are the subject of this book.

Art and aesthetics

Readers of

this

book may be unaccustomed to

which implies

a "strategy,"

be

more accustomed

an

artist's creativity.

and

a social

thinking of art as

political intention.

We may

to regarding art as a personal expression of

Some may be comfortable

with the notion

of art as a collective expression of a worldview, particularly

considering religious symbols or the

ceremony. The term these things.

The

of aesthetics. There

There art.

is

no

"Art"

is

is

no

it

object single

will is

a

word used all

hand, seems to be a

to

of art

in

when

religious

be used here, encompasses

all

created within a cultural system

and universal system of aesthetics.

privileged standard for

definition changes

10

"art," as

artistic

ritual role

name

what can or cannot be

called

certain kinds of things and

its

the time. Aesthetic expression, on the other

human

universal.

Human

beings

all

over the

world express values about what or inappropriate, beautiful or

is

ugly,

good or

bad, appropriate

holy or profane, through a

system of aesthetic valuation. Aesthetics shape the qualitative and ethical perceptions of social the

political, religious,

life.

As

such, aesthetics

permeate

and economic realms of every society.

Aesthetic systems are culture-bound. Cultural

misunderstandings and conflict can stem from contesting aesthetic

and

ethical systems.

For example, the Enlightenment-era judgment

that contrasted European civilization with the "primitive savages"

of the

New World

can be understood as an essentially aesthetic

evaluation deeply rooted

thought

[4,5].

in

European philosophical and

religious

The eighteenth-century French philosopher

Jean-Jacques Rousseau's appreciation of the "Noble Savage"

represented a reversal of this aesthetic assessment, but

his

writing

had more to do with a critique of European society than any

real

understanding of North American Indians. Aesthetic systems change. They are permeable and easily

absorb new

ideas, attitudes,

and

shifting valuations.

They are not

always internally consistent. They are at once reenacted and

reinvented by individuals, who, for the purposes of this book, are

4 Watercolor portrait of Jean Baptist Brouillette. painted by

George Winter, based upon

a

c

1863-71,

sketch of 1837.

The clothing worn by a

Brouillette,

Miami mens or mixed-blood of

Indiana,

merited the following

comment "He wore

in

the

a fine frock

coat of the

latest fashion. His "pes-mo-kin"

shirt

was white spotted with

or

a

small red figure, overhanging very

handsome blue with very rich

leggings,

silk

winged'

ribbons of

prismatic hues, exhibiting the

[women's]

I

artist's journal:

skillful

handiwork

"

I

5

Godfned Maes. America,

pen and

ink with gray

over black chalk, Distinctions

c

wash

1690-1700.

between broad

categories of

human

beings.

European and Native American,

depend upon equally broad generalizations. in this

Note

that even

extraordinarily early and

allegorical representation of a

Native American, the artist has included the stereotypical

feathered headdress, bow, and quiver

full

of arrows.

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