painting the NATIVE WORLDand Animals Life, Land,lib.store.yahoo.net/lib/pomegranate/pros-a176.pdfPAINTING the NATIVE WORLD Life, Land, and Animals n the early twentieth century, Native

VALERIE K. VERZUH T ANTONIO R. CHAVARRIA

Life, Land,and AnimalsNATIVE WORLD

painting the NATIVE WORLD

NativeWorld.Prosp.final.indd 1 3/5/09 3:44 PM

Calvin Tyndall, Omaha | Omaha Buffalo Hunt, 1934 | Tempera on board | Gift of Dorothy Dunn

2 T PAINTING THE NATIVE WORLD


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



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


Joe Hilario Herrera, Cochiti

Men’s Arrow Dance, 1938

Tempera on paper

Gift of Dorothy Dunn

CEREMONIAL L IFE T 5


Harrison Begay, Navajo

Untitled, c. 1990

Gouache on wove paper



Jose Ray Toledo, Jemez | Navajo Woman Rider, c. 1942 | Gouache on illustration board | Gift of Florence M. Schroeder

ANIMALS T 7


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)

Pomegranate Communications, Inc.Box 808022, Petaluma, CA 94975800 227 1428 / 707 782 9000www.pomegranate.com

Pomegranate Europe Ltd.Unit 1, Heathcote Business CentreHurlbutt RoadWarwick, Warwickshire CV34 6TD, UK[+44] 0 1926 [email protected]


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painting the NATIVE WORLDand Animals Life, Land,lib.store.yahoo.net/lib/pomegranate/pros-a176.pdfPAINTING the NATIVE WORLD Life, Land, and Animals n the early twentieth century, Native