R8 • GLOBE ARTS G THE GLOBE AND MAIL • SATURDAY, JULY 19, 2014 VISUAL ART .......................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... Sheridan Pages (Sundance), Southern Cheyenne, ca. 1885, coloured pencil and graphite on lined paper (ALL PHOTOS BY JOHN BIGELOW TAYLOR/COURTESY TREPANIERBAER GALLERY) issues. It was this sense of mission and, of course, expertise that recently brought Frank to Calgary’s Trépa- nierBaer Gallery as guest speaker at the opening of “Keeping Time: AN ARTFUL JAMES ADAMS Ledger Drawings and the Picto-
[email protected] graphic Traditions of Native North Americans ca. 1820-1900.” ACCOUNTING ................................................................ For TrépanierBaer, which typi- t’s very complicated.” Ross cally showcases contemporary ‘IFrank was on the phone the artists such as Evan Penny and other day trying to explain, con- Chris Cran, it’s an unprecedented OF A CULTURE cisely, cogently, the “difficult his- exhibition and sale. The quality of tory” of Plains Indian ledger work available is impressive – drawings and how it couldn’t be there are almost 70 ledger draw- UNDER DURESS anything but complicated when ings by Sioux, Hidatsa, Arapaho the subject is a cultural phenom- and Cheyenne artists, with prices enon informed by unequal parts ranging from $8,500 to $95,000, subjugation, resistance, accultu- plus 20 or so related objects. They ration, appropriation, admira- include a pair of 1880 painted tion, creativity and, yes, beauty. Cheyenne parfleche rawhide An associate professor of ethnic bags, and a painted Crow shield studies at the University of Cali- and cover from 1870, made of buf- fornia San Diego and director of falo hide and deerskin which are the La Jolla-based Plains Indian selling for $175,000.