painting the Life, Land, NATIVENATIVE WORLDWORLD and Animals VALERIE K. VERZUH T ANTONIO R. CHAVARRIA

NativeWorld.Prosp.final.indd 1 3/5/09 3:44 PM Calvin Tyndall, Omaha | Omaha Buffalo Hunt, 1934 | Tempera on board | Gift of

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NativeWorld.Prosp.final.indd 2 3/5/09 3:44 PM visual narrativesAmerican Indian Fine Art of the Twentieth Century

VALERIE K. VERZUH

he twentieth-century Native American “art” scarcely existed in Indian culture. A few forms of Fine Art movement represents a uniquely precontact Native American creative processes might American genre within the canon of art have loosely fit the Anglo definition of that term. These history. Also referred to as the Modern Indian Art move- include symbolic pictographs painted on rock surfaces ment or the Easel Painting Tradition, it professionalized throughout the Southwest, Pueblo wall murals painted the work of Indian artists who produced paintings and in both religious and secular structures, the spiritual drawings strictly as art, with no additional utilitarian and ephemeral sand paintings of the , and the or ceremonial function, using media familiar in the buffalo hide paintings made by the Plains tribes to non-Indian art world but not traditional in Native record important events. But more commonly, Native American culture—typically pencil, ink, watercolor, Americans traditionally created what Anglos would or casein on paper. term “crafts”—beautiful painted pottery, artfully woven Prior to its postulation by Anglo American anthro- baskets, and other cultural artifacts employing a vari- pologists, art historians, and artists, the concept of ety of materials, techniques, and styles. In the Indian

VISUAL NARRATIVES T 3

NativeWorld.Prosp.final.indd 3 3/5/09 3:44 PM , 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

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NativeWorld.Prosp.final.indd 4 3/5/09 3:44 PM Joe Hilario Herrera, Cochiti Men’s Arrow Dance, 1938 Tempera on paper Gift of Dorothy Dunn

CEREMONIAL LIFE T 5

NativeWorld.Prosp.final.indd 5 3/5/09 3:44 PM Harrison Begay, Navajo Untitled, c. 1990 Gouache on wove paper

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NativeWorld.Prosp.final.indd 6 3/5/09 3:44 PM Jose Ray Toledo, Jemez | Navajo Woman Rider, c. 1942 | Gouache on illustration board | Gift of Florence M. Schroeder

ANIMALS T 7

NativeWorld.Prosp.final.indd 7 3/5/09 3:44 PM PAINTING the NATIVE WORLD Life, Land, and Animals THE MUSEUM OF INDIAN ARTS AND CULTURE, one of four museums in the Museum of New Mexico n the early twentieth century, Native American artists began ex- system, is a premier repository of Native art and material ploring artistic practices outside their utilitarian and ceremonial culture. It tells the stories of the people of the Southwest crafts. Having been recently introduced to Anglo American media—pencil, from prehistory through contemporary art. ink, and watercolor—Native artists gravitated to the expressive qual- ity of painting and drawing. The Native American Fine Art movement 80 pages, 9 x 8 inches Smyth-sewn casebound, with jacket emerged, characterized by flattened compositions, bold outlines, and a More than 55 full-color reproductions narrative style similar to that found in traditional Indian pottery. From Text by Valerie K. Verzuh and Antonio R. Chavarria scenes of everyday life to depictions of nature, the works created by these © 2009 Museum of New Mexico

artists became a valuable tool for the preservation of Native American $ 24.95 US ($ 31.95 Canada) traditions and philosophies. ISBN 978-0-7649-5100-8 Catalog No. A176 A major force in shaping the Native American Fine Art movement Available September 2009 was The Studio at the Santa Fe Indian School, established in 1932 by Printed in China noted educator Dorothy Dunn. While most Indian schools of the time Unless otherwise noted, all images courtesy Museum suppressed indigenous cultural practices—supposedly to foster assimila- of Indian Arts & Culture / Laboratory of Anthropology tion of the students into white America—Dunn’s teaching philosophy ran Santa Fe Department of Cultural Affairs, Museum of New Mexico © Museum of New Mexico the opposite way. She abandoned European models and, despite resis- FRONT COVER: tance from the educational establishment, encouraged her art students Juan B. Medina, Zia, Zia Birds on a Tree, 1935 (left) to embrace “traditional modernism”—a synthesis of ancient American Geronima Cruz Montoya, San Juan, Pueblo Crafts, Indian and contemporaneous forms. With a renewed cultural pride, many 1937, detail (upper right) Narciso Abeyta, Navajo, Boys Riding Among the Yucca, of Dunn’s students went on to become renowned artists who worked in c. 1933–1934 (lower right) the “Studio Style.” Featuring more than fifty works from the Museum

of Indian Arts and Culture, Santa Fe, Painting the Native Pomegranate Communications, Inc. World: Life, Land, and Animals showcases the graceful, Box 808022, Petaluma, CA 94975 800 227 1428 / 707 782 9000 innovative work from this exceptional period in Native www.pomegranate.com American art. Valerie K. Verzuh explores the develop- Pomegranate Europe Ltd. ment of the Native American Fine Art movement, while Unit 1, Heathcote Business Centre Antonio R. Chavarria provides an overview of the main Hurlbutt Road Warwick, Warwickshire CV34 6TD, UK themes found in these works—ceremonial life, daily [+44] 0 1926 430111 life, and animals. [email protected]

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