painting the native worldand animals life,...
TRANSCRIPT
VALERIE K. VERZUH T ANTONIO R. CHAVARRIA
Life, Land,and AnimalsNATIVE WORLD
painting the NATIVE WORLD
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Calvin Tyndall, Omaha | Omaha Buffalo Hunt, 1934 | Tempera on board | Gift of Dorothy Dunn
2 T PAINTING THE NATIVE WORLD
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visual narrativesAmerican Indian Fine Art of theTwentieth Century
VALERIE K. VERZUH
“art” scarcely existed in Indian culture. A few forms of
precontact Native American creative processes might
have loosely fit the Anglo definition of that term. These
include symbolic pictographs painted on rock surfaces
throughout the Southwest, Pueblo wall murals painted
in both religious and secular structures, the spiritual
and ephemeral sand paintings of the Navajo, and the
buffalo hide paintings made by the Plains tribes to
record important events. But more commonly, Native
Americans traditionally created what Anglos would
term “crafts”—beautiful painted pottery, artfully woven
baskets, and other cultural artifacts employing a vari-
ety of materials, techniques, and styles. In the Indian
he twentieth-century Native American
Fine Art movement represents a uniquely
American genre within the canon of art
history. Also referred to as the Modern Indian Art move-
ment or the Easel Painting Tradition, it professionalized
the work of Indian artists who produced paintings and
drawings strictly as art, with no additional utilitarian
or ceremonial function, using media familiar in the
non-Indian art world but not traditional in Native
American culture—typically pencil, ink, watercolor,
or casein on paper.
Prior to its postulation by Anglo American anthro-
pologists, art historians, and artists, the concept of
VISUAL NARRATIVES T 3
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4 T PAINTING THE NATIVE WORLD
Pablita Velarde, Santa Clara | Santa Clara Corn Dance, 1940 | Gouache on board | Bequest of Dorothy Dunn
DOROTHY DUNN COLLECTION, MUSEUM OF INDIAN ARTS & CULTURE / LABORATORY OF ANTHROPOLOGY
SANTA FE DEPARTMENT OF CULTURAL AFFAIRS, MUSEUM OF NEW MEXICO
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Joe Hilario Herrera, Cochiti
Men’s Arrow Dance, 1938
Tempera on paper
Gift of Dorothy Dunn
CEREMONIAL L IFE T 5
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Harrison Begay, Navajo
Untitled, c. 1990
Gouache on wove paper
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Jose Ray Toledo, Jemez | Navajo Woman Rider, c. 1942 | Gouache on illustration board | Gift of Florence M. Schroeder
ANIMALS T 7
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PAINTING the NATIVE WORLDLife, Land, and Animals
n the early twentieth century, Native American artists began ex-
ploring artistic practices outside their utilitarian and ceremonial
crafts. Having been recently introduced to Anglo American media—pencil,
ink, and watercolor—Native artists gravitated to the expressive qual-
ity of painting and drawing. The Native American Fine Art movement
emerged, characterized by flattened compositions, bold outlines, and a
narrative style similar to that found in traditional Indian pottery. From
scenes of everyday life to depictions of nature, the works created by these
artists became a valuable tool for the preservation of Native American
traditions and philosophies.
A major force in shaping the Native American Fine Art movement
was The Studio at the Santa Fe Indian School, established in 1932 by
noted educator Dorothy Dunn. While most Indian schools of the time
suppressed indigenous cultural practices—supposedly to foster assimila-
tion of the students into white America—Dunn’s teaching philosophy ran
the opposite way. She abandoned European models and, despite resis-
tance from the educational establishment, encouraged her art students
to embrace “traditional modernism”—a synthesis of ancient American
Indian and contemporaneous forms. With a renewed cultural pride, many
of Dunn’s students went on to become renowned artists who worked in
the “Studio Style.”
Featuring more than fifty works from the Museum
of Indian Arts and Culture, Santa Fe, Painting the Native
World: Life, Land, and Animals showcases the graceful,
innovative work from this exceptional period in Native
American art. Valerie K. Verzuh explores the develop-
ment of the Native American Fine Art movement, while
Antonio R. Chavarria provides an overview of the main
themes found in these works—ceremonial life, daily
life, and animals.
THE MUSEUM OF INDIAN ARTS AND CULTURE,
one of four museums in the Museum of New Mexico
system, is a premier repository of Native art and material
culture. It tells the stories of the people of the Southwest
from prehistory through contemporary art.
80 pages, 9 x 8 inches Smyth-sewn casebound, with jacketMore than 55 full-color reproductions Text by Valerie K. Verzuh and Antonio R. Chavarria
© 2009 Museum of New Mexico
$ 24.95 US ($ 31.95 Canada)ISBN 978-0-7649-5100-8Catalog No. A176Available September 2009Printed in China
Unless otherwise noted, all images courtesy Museum of Indian Arts & Culture / Laboratory of AnthropologySanta Fe Department of Cultural Affairs, Museum of New Mexico © Museum of New Mexico
FRONT COVER:
Juan B. Medina, Zia, Zia Birds on a Tree, 1935 (left)Geronima Cruz Montoya, San Juan, Pueblo Crafts, 1937, detail (upper right)Narciso Abeyta, Navajo, Boys Riding Among the Yucca, c. 1933–1934 (lower right)
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