Native American Fine Arts Movement
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I: General Concepts
B. Problem --- not known, studied, understood -- only now recognized as vital Art tradition.
C. Stages Indian Art
Tribal -- made by tribe for tribe (not art in Western sense)
Ethnic -- made by tribe for others using tribal style and techniques
Pan Indian -- made by Indian artists from an Indian perspective but not a specific tribal tradition.
Mainstream -- made by artists who are Indian for Western art world.
Post modern -- substitution of diversity for mainstream
D. The White role in the Native American Fine Arts movement:
1. Background -- (beginning in 1870's) Reservation Period - a period of cultural colonization, genocide through assimilation. Government, institutions, and individuals had major impact on Indian art.
*Romantic Stereotypes "keep as the other" role of White patron
*Assimilation -- Economic development strategy - use art as strategy
Capability with Western Modernism (i.e. symbolic, abstract)
Nationalistic -- truly American in regionalist sense
2. Major Early White Patrons--Captain Richard Pratt, Commander of Fort Marion (1875-89), promoted ledger art among South Plains Indian prisoners. In 1879, he founded Carlisle Indian School in Pennsylvania as a strong advocate of assimilation.
James Mooney 1861-1921
An ethnologist for the Bureau of American Ethnology of the Smithsonian Institution who commissioned Southern Plains Indian artists as early as 1893. Worked extensively with Kiowa artist Silverhorn and encouraged Arapaho artist, Carl Sweezy.
Edgar Hewett
Came to Nex Mexico in 1889 as president of New Mexico School in Las Vegas serving until 1903. Founded the School of American Archeology in 1907 and the Museum of new Mexico in 1909. He actively recruited artists and intellectuals to Santa Fe and sponsored Native American artists.
E. Indian Role:
During period of cultural genocide -- Art was major key to Indian survival. It helped create understanding that Indian life and culture was evolving but basic Indian values and views need not be sacrificed.
1. Economic development
2. Cultural Preservation
3. Native Independence
F. Chronological and Stylistic Development:
1. 1870 - 1917 Proto-Modern, ledger drawings, etc.
2. 1917 - 1932 Founding of Modern Indian painting/art
3. 1932 - 1961 First Generation Modernists
4. 1961 - 1986 Second Generation Modernists
5. 1986 ------->Post-modern Indian Art or Contemporary Indian Art
G. Major Geographic Centers
1. Southwest centered in Northern New Mexico around Santa Fe
2. Southern Plains centered in Oklahoma aroung Anadarko, Tulsa, Norman, Muskogee
3. Northern Plains, dispersed
II. Expansion on the Theme:
A. Proto-Modern 1870 - 1917
"Ledger Drawing" art White "patron collectors"
Plains transition from hide paintings to white materials (paper, ink, watercolors, etc.) occurring from c. 1879 to 1910. Major example took place at Fort Marion, Florida where from 1875 to 1878, seventy young Southern Plains Indians (Arapaho, Cheyenne, Kiowa, and Comanche) were prisoners as a result of the Red River war of 1874. Twenty-eight of the prisoners created drawings including Kiowas Paul Zotom, Wild Horse, Wohaw, Ohettoint, and White Horse. Cheyennes included Buffalo Meat, Holwing Wolf, Making Medicine, Cohoe, Squint Eyes, Bear Heart, and Okuhatuh. On the Northern Plains famous ledger artists include Standing Bear, Amos Bad Bear Heart, Blackhawk, Four Horns, Kills Two, Short Bull, Batiste Good, Long Cat, and New Bear. Ledger drawing began to decline after the 1880s in the reservation environment with a shift from exploit subjects to genre and nostalgic subjects.
Southwest Focus
*Great archeological activity relating to study of Southwestern Indian culture
*Presence of Artists colony in Southwest provided incentive and contacts
* Economic developmentand tourism, Santa Fe Railroad & Boosterism
*A change in government perspective on Indian culture now more positive
Southwest modern painting began c.1900 brought into being by Crescenio Martinez et al (San Ildefonso Pueblo) series of drawings sponsored by School of America Research of Santa Fe (Edgar L. Hewett). Alfonso Roybal (AWA Tsireh) also a founder with his uncle Crescencio - Sante Fe Indian School - encouraged Indian youth to paint Fred Kabotie, Ma-Pe-Wi, Quah Ah (Tonita Pena)
the Dean of Indian Women Painters.
Southwest Style: Characteristics
More symbolic than Naturalistic
Little concern for illusion
Strong outlines
Flat color/light and bright
Motifs taken from pottery
Ceremonial, severe, and abstract subjects
B. Founding of Modern Indian Art 1917 - 1932
The first "professional" artists emerge -- see themselves as artists:
*Southwest--Pan-Indianism a force as various schools interact.
San Ildefonso School -- Fred Kabotie, Ma-Pe-Wi, Quah Ah (Tonita Pena)
*Santa Fe Movement 1919-1932
Building on San Ildefonso School the Santa Fe Indian School was early to promote Indian art as means of preserving Southwest Indian Culture and stimulating economic development - press towards Ethnic and Pan-Indian Art. This was a period of dramatic and rapid growth.
Examples:
1922 - Santa Fe Indian Market established
1923 - Indian Arts Fund established to buy, preserve, and make available for study
1923? New Mexico Association on Indian Affairs
1927 - Meriam Report/Federal Study advocating promotion of Indian art and culture save Indian way of life
1930 - Hall of Indian Arts - installed in the Museum of New Mexico - first permanent display of Indian art on equal footing with non-modern art
1931 - The Exhibition of Indian Tribal Arts NYC (John Sloan)
Two-year international tour including Venice Biennial--viewed Indian art as a vital, functioning part of American life (influence of Regionalism)
*The Southern Plains
Carl Sweezy (Arapaho, 1881 - 1953)
Ernest Spybuck (Shawnee, 1883 - 1949)
*The Kiowa/Oklahoma School
Susan Peters in 1917 (a field matron w.)
US Indian Services at Anadarko, OK promoted Indian art – 1918 started classes at her own expense - 23 painters enrolled
Kiowa Five:
Spencer Asah (Az-ah)
Jack Hokeah (Ho-ki)
Stephen Mopope (Mo-pope)
Lois (Bou-qe-Tah) Smokey
Monroe Tsatoke (Sa-toke)
James Auchiah (Oh-chi)
at college age Peters sent them to University of Oklahoma to work with O.B. Jacobsen and Edith Mahier
Jacobsen promoted them on International basis
C. First Generation of Modern Masters 1932-1961/Institutionalization
The influence of the Southwest Art Movement expands and dominates. Attracts and inspires many Indian artists from all tribes and areas.
Promotes Pan-Indianism - points to mainstream
1932 - New Arts and Crafts building opens for classes at Santa Fe Indian School
- Mural commissioned in Reflectory and the Mural Guild establised
- Sept. 9 THE STUDIO (Dorothy Dunn, Director 1932-38) formally established: promotes pride in Indian heritage, provides professional economic incentive, field trips to museums of New Mexico, sponsors international exhibits
- Prejudice against academic training - views Indian as Natural artists
1933 - John C. Collier becomes Commissioner of Indian Affairs and implements recommendations in Meriam Report
1935 - Establishment of Art Department at Bacone Junior College,
Muskogee, OK (Acee Blue Eagle, Woody Crumbo, Dick West, Chief Terry Saul, Ruthe Blalock Jones)
1935 - Formation of Indian Arts and Crafts Board
1938-39 - Golden Gate Exposition in San Francisco
1941 - Exposition of Indian Art of U.S. at Museum of Modern Art, NYC
1946-79 - Annual National Exhibition of American Indian Painting at Philbrook Art Center (Bernard Frazier, First Director)
1947 - Founding of Southern Plains Indian Museum and Crafts Shop, Anadarko
WPA - Impact was critical
Professional training
Professional status
Popular market
WWII -Impact was huge
Many artists trained in 30's and 40's stopped making art for better paying jobs in expanded industry, e.g. Calvin Tyndal
Less interest in Indian art by general public and government. Cold War emphasis on NY School of Modernism as U.S. moved into world cultural dominance.
GI Bill offered professional education (1945-56), e.g. Howe, West, etc., and Modernism in full bloom by 1952.
Artists: Velino Shije Herrera*
Tonita PeÁa
Harrison Begay (Navajo)*
Gerald Nailor (Navajo)*
Quincy Tahoma (Navajo)*
Andrew Tsinajinnie (Navajo)*
Pablita Velarde (Santa Clara)*
Pop-Chalee*
Oscar Howe* (UO) MFA
Jose Herrera - (Cochiti) "Pueblo Modernism" graduated* from Santa Fe Indian School 1940; studied with Ramon Johnson at University of New Mexico from 1950-53 (influenced by Cubism, Kandinsky, Klee)
Black Bear Bosin
Woody Crumbo (UO)
Acee Blue Eagle (UO)
Dick West (UO) MFA
Allan Hauser*
Fred Beaver
Fred Kabotie*
Cecil Dick (Cherokee)
Patrick DesJarlait
Modernism in full bloom by 1952 - with serious artists appropriating traditional pictorial forms and using them in a Modernist format.
* Identifies Santa Fe alums
D. Second Generation Modernists 1961 - 1986 (mainstreaming the new Indian painting)
By late 1950's Santa Fe Indian School seen as conservative, too traditional called the "BAMBI School" because of its strict stylistic conventions - pastel colors, limited subjects, outlines, flatness, etc.
1959 - Rockefeller Foundation funded a conference Directions in Indian Art to discuss ways to expand income for Indian arts and crafts suggested ways to incorporate respect for Indian Culture into Western oriented Modernist style.
1961 - Indian Art Project
Rockefeller Foundation and University of Arizona
1962 - Close of Santa Fe Indian School replaced by Institute of American Indian Art (IAIA) in Santa Fe to revitalize Indian art. Philosophy - use art as means for improving cross-discipline academic performance while retaining pride in cultural heritage but recognizing that traditional aesthetics and values were inimical to success in the Modern World.
Translated into: Emphasis on Bi-cultural approach; pride in cultural heritage; need to join mainstream art world; rejection of historically constructed artifice for true contemporary Indian experience; new applications of old techniques. Consciously engaged and negotiated with the Euro-American Avant-gard; emphasis on Individualism over tribalism.
O. Howe/Joe Herrera
Artists: Fritz Scholder
T. C. Cannon
Kay Walking Stick
E. Post-Modernism (or Contemporary Indian Art)
Artists borrow both from the dominant culture and their indigenous past to promote a view of Nativeness that opposes the influences of the dominant culture rather than to become more like Euro-American. Respecting Mainstream and finding new synthesis. Political - art as moral performance and resistance to colonial hegemony
Satirical/Parody
Inclusiveness
Popular Arts
Artists:
Jaune Quick-To-See Smith
George Longfish
Jimmie Durham
Bob Haozous
James Luna
Major Museums Featuring Native American Art:
Southern Plains Indian Museum and Crafts Center, Anadarko, OK
Sioux Indian Museum, Rapid City, SD
The Heard Museum, Phoenix, AZ
The Denver Art Museum
Peabody Museum, Harvard
Museum of New Mexico, Santa Fe
Museum of the American Indian, Washington
Philbrook Art Center, Tulsa
Gilcrease Museum, Tulsa
The Heritage Center, Red Cloud Indian School, Pine Ridge, SD
Museum of the plains Indian, Cody, WY
Eiteljorg Museum of American Indian and Western Art, Indianapolis, IN
Wheelright Museum
Native American Art Festivals/Markets
1. Museum of Northern Arizona Indian Markets
3101 N. Fort Valley Rd.
Flagstaff, AZ 86001
Four markets July through September
2. Annual Eight Northern Indian Pueblos
Artist & Craftsman Show
Pojoaque Pueblo
P.O. Box 969
San Juan Pueblo, NM 87566
July
3. Gallup Inter-Tribal Indian Ceremonial
226 W. Coal Avenue
Gallup, NM 87301
August
4. Annual Santa Fe Indian Market
Southwestern Association for Indian Arts, Inc.
P.O. Box 15353
Santa Fe, NM 87506
August
5. Annual Heard Museum Guild Indin Fair & Market
The Heard Museum
22 East Monte Vista Rd.
Phoenix, AZ 85004
March
6. Annual Scottsdale Indian Artist of America Show
Arizona Indian Arts Alliance
P.O. Box 252
Tumacacori, AZ 85640
Mid February
7. Red Earth Native Americn Cultural Festival
Red Earth, Inc.
2100 N.E. 52nd St.
Oklahoma City, OK 73111
June
8. Annual Indian Fair
San Diego Museum of Man
1350 El Prado, Balboa Park
San Diego, CA 92101
June
9. Annual Eiteljorg Museum Indian Market
Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art
500 W. Washington St.
Indianapolis, IN 46204
June
10. Annual Pueblo Grande Indian Market
Pueblo Grande Museum
4619 E. Washington St.
Phoenix, AZ 85034
December
11. Annual Crow Fair
Crow Fair Board
P.O. Box 159
Crow Agency, MT 59022
August
12. Annual Lawrence Indian Arts Show
Kansas University Museum of Anthropology
Spooner Hall
Lawrence, KS 66045
September
13. Northern Plains Tribal Arts
American Indian Services
P.O. Box 1720
Sioux Falls, SD 57106
September