Innholdsfortegnelse for April - May 2018 / No.14 i Native American Art Magazine

The expensive historic Pueblo pottery market has remained soft since the recession. Younger new collectors are more interested in signed contemporary pottery, which is often less costly. Now is an excellent time to acquire the old traditional jars. Because of the huge range of diversity and cost of Native American art, collectors come from all walks of life: teachers, construction workers, even law enforcement, plus your usual professionals like doctors, lawyers and entrepreneurs. Nampeyo’s work continues to be in demand as her reputation rises. The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York has recently acquired pieces by her for the American wing, and I expect other museums to follow suit which should add to her standing in American art. History shows she was an early American modernist, and that Native…

The Arts and Crafts movement in America brought many Indian crafts to the attention of the dominant white society. Arising as a response to the perceived inhumanity of machine made goods and overstuffed Victorian clutter, this movement of the late 1800s through the early 1900s emphasized the simple, the natural and the manmade. It is not surprising then that the elegant, natural-fiber, “woman-made” Indian basket was adopted by this movement. By the turn of the century, most of the western tribes of American Indians had either been missionized or placed on reservations. With the Indians secured on government lands, their lives came to be looked on with a new sentimentality. In novels and on stage, Euro-Americans romanticized the glorious days of the symbiotic relationship of nature and Indian. Images of…

Maine Indian baskets are traditionally made from black ash, which is referred to as brown ash in Maine. Wood-splint basketry using this unique material extends throughout the Northeast and into the Great Lakes region—the geographic range of this tree species. Although basket forms produced by the groups living in this region often share similarities, there are distinct tribal and familial styles, especially in Maine. All four Wabanaki tribes in Maine—the Houlton Band of Maliseet, the Aroostook Band of Micmacs, the Passamaquoddy Tribe and the Penobscot Nation—created and continue to make baskets from brown ash. Throughout time, basket makers have always worked independently, retaining control of what they produced, selling directly to buyers, and creating items to meet specific market niches. Until recently, Maine Indian basket makers did not sign or…

“My advice is to collect something you are passionate about,” says Debra Sherman, owner of Dancing Wolf Gallery in Elbert, Colorado, “and this will bring a passion to learn and a passion to continue collecting. And with passion, there is joy.” This sentiment is felt widely throughout the Native American art community, but when it comes to basketry in particular it is a message to be heard, as there is an individual story behind each piece created. The narrative begins as the maker harvests their materials. Knowing when, where and how the materials grow is knowledge that has been passed on through generations of families. Then comes the intricate weaving of the basket—using methods such as plaiting, coiling and twining—and is followed by the form and designs that the work…

SCOTTSDALE, AZ Raised in Santa Clara Pueblo, Folwell was immersed in the traditional methods of pottery. Now, she takes the traditional practices and applies a modern interpretation, often influenced by the personal and world events that surround her. Folwell and her husband, Davison, moved to Taos from Tucson two years ago, where he serves as the director of the Couse-Sharp Historic Site. Eanger Irving Couse and Joseph Henry Sharp, two of the six founding members of the famed Taos Society of Artists, provided a fount of inspiration for Folwell’s new works. “Even though many of the paintings were staged scenarios, like Edward Curtis photographs, I believe a number of the members of the Taos Society of Artists wanted to capture and record the nobility and humanity of native Americans before…

PARK HILL, OK The longest-running American Indian art show in Oklahoma returns to the Cherokee Heritage Center with the 47th annual Trail of Tears Art Show (TOTAS). The artists, all of whom are citizens of federally recognized American Indian tribes or nations, compete for more than $15,000 in the categories of painting, sculpture, pottery, basketry, graphics, jewelry and miniatures. “As an inter-tribal show and sale, TOTAS has the potential to educate visitors about the individual identities of tribes,” says Callie Chunestudy, curator at Cherokee Heritage Center. “I hope this show can play a role in raising awareness about the uniqueness of these cultures and aid in efforts to end the Pan-Indian era that we have experienced in the past.” The show opens April 7 and runs through May 5, and…

NORMAN, OK Tonita Peña (San Ildefonso/Cochiti, 1893-1949) went to live with her aunt and uncle at Cochiti Pueblo when she was a child after the death of her mother. She lived there for the rest of her life. She had begun painting at an early age, bucked tradition and became the only woman in the first group of Native easel painters, the San Ildefonso Self-Taught Group. It included Julian Martinez (1897-1943), Alfonso Roybal (1898-1955), Abel Sanchez (1899-1971), Crescencio Martinez (1879-1918), Encarnación Peña (1902-1979) and others. Generations in Modern Pueblo Painting: The Art of Tonita Peña and Joe Herrera, an exhibition at the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art at the University of Oklahoma-Norman, traces her and her son’s impact on modern art. The exhibition is the first significant exploration of her…

DENVER ART MUSEUM Among new works acquired by the Denver Art Museum is First Nations artist Kent Monkman’s The Scream. The painting was created for a touring exhibition produced by the Art Museum at the University of Toronto in partnership with the Confederation Centre Art Gallery titled Shame and Prejudice: A Story of Resilience, which “narrates a story of Canada through the lens of First Nations’ resilience.” The monumental work represents a dramatic shift for Monkman. While his previous works have used humor to defuse the tension of presenting complicated and contentious subject matter, The Scream depicts a horrifying scene of First Nations children being forcibly removed from their homes and moved to residential schools, a historical practice from which consequences are still felt in Canadian society through language loss,…

Part of the allure of Native American arts is the process in which raw materials leave the earth to begin their journey into finished works of art. There is a romantic notion related to the origin of these materials—sacred mountains, ancient clay deposits, ancestral mines passed down from generation to generation—but, as is often the case, these materials come from humble, non-descript places. Holes in the ground for turquoise, rocky outcroppings carved into hillsides for clay, cottonwood roots for katsina carvings. It’s no different for basket weavers, who harvest their materials from trees, bushes and grasses you’ve seen hundreds of time without batting an eye, places that are tucked back within dry riverbeds or concealed from highways and major thoroughfares, not out of secrecy but simply because they grow in…

Utilitarian wares among Native Americans were just that, made for everyday use. They were often decorated with symbols and images. Once the beginning weavers and potters established their basic skills, they refined their techniques, the shapes and intricacy of their vessels and clothing and cherished them, often for generations. Baskets were part of the production, but their lifespan was short. Few baskets remain from before the 1880s. The Palm Springs Art Museum is displaying 150 baskets from their own collection in the exhibition Grass Roots: Native American Basketry of the West, through June 18. With the arrival of the railroads and the accompanying tourists in the late 19th century, Native artisans had a ready market and created some of their best work for it. Although men wove various kinds of…

SANTA FE, NM In the 1880s, there was a shift in the Pueblo pottery that was being created. The items went from strictly ceremonial and utilitarian with simple forms and conservative designs to pieces that would attract the attention of tourists. Many potters began to experiment with shapes, colors and designs, creating eye-catching vessels that were easily marketed. On April 6, Adobe Gallery in Santa Fe, New Mexico, will open the exhibition Unique and Unusual Pueblo Pottery featuring more than 30 rare and original pieces. “With the influx of the train in the 1880s, and the tourism later, [Pueblo Indians] began making things they thought were more attuned to what visitors would buy,” says Alexander E. Anthony Jr., owner of the gallery. “They would do things that looked ceremonial because…

SAN RAFAEL, CA President’s Day weekend, collectors of Native American art showed up in droves to the Marin Civic Center in San Rafael, California, for the 34th annual American Indian Art Show | Marin. The show was met with enthusiasm as eager buyers turned out to purchase baskets, jewelry, kastina dolls and more. Kim Martindale, producer of the show, says, “There was an excitement this year, as there were sales happening and in many cases to new buyers.” Steve Begner, owner of Turkey Mountain Traders, reported similar findings as Martindale. “The show was a good one for us, with sales to both new and established clients,” he shares. “Most of our sales were jewelry, including a major Charles Loloma piece and an extraordinary 19th-century Navajo necklace.” Many collectors visited the…

CINCINNATI, OH A Blackfoot shirt given to a United States government photographer a century ago and a Northeastern ball club that dates back to 1666 are just two of the highlights of Cowan’s Auctions’ spring American Indian & Western Art sale in Cincinnati on April 6. The sale will feature nearly 400 lots of authentic Native American and Western materials, which are prized by a growing number of collectors who are enamored with their historic significance and expert craftsmanship. “Over the past year, we have had an increase in both the number of bidders and buyers in our Native American art auctions,” says Danica M. Farnand, director of the American Indian department. “Although the prices for middle-market material may not be as strong as they once had been, I believe…

APR. 5-12 SCOTTSDALE, AZ Taos Light: Maidens to Mantas King Galleries (480) 481-0187 www.kinggalleries.com APR. 5-JUNE 16 KALISPELL, MY The Surging, Thundering Herd: Vintage Bison Engravings Hockaday Museum of Art (406) 755-5268 www.hockadaymuseum.og APR. 6-MAY 31 SANTA FE, NM Unique and Unusual Pueblo Pottery Adobe Gallery (505) 955-0550 www.adobegallery.com APR. 6 CINCINNATI, OH American Indian and Western Art Cowan’s Auctions (513) 871-1670 www.cowans.com APR. 7-MAY 5 TAHLEQUAH, OK 47th annual Trail of Tears Art Show & Sale Cherokee Heritage Center (888) 999-6007 www.cherokeeheritage.org THROUGH APR. 8 NORMAN, OK Generations in Modern Pueblo Painting: The Art of Tonita Peña and Joe Herrera Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art (450) 325-3272 www.ou.edu/fjjma APR. 8 SANTA FE, NM Pueblo Pottery and the Pueblo Pottery Fund New Mexico Museum of Art (505) 476-5041 www.nmartmuseum.org…

What exhibitions are you currently working on? I feel like I always have multiple projects going on at once—a good problem to have! I just completed a major public art installation at the museum with Cheyenne Randall. We installed six monumentally sized wheatpaste murals on our campus of Audrey Hepburn, Barbara Streisand, Paul Newman, Elvis and others, all tattooed in Photoshop then blown up to a large scale. My next project for the Heard is a midcareer monograph of Nicholas Galanin, which will feature more than 12 years, and 10,000 square feet of work by the artist. Works on view will include video, installation, fashion, performance art, works on paper and much more—in total about 50 objects are included in the exhibition. Dear Listener opens May 4 and will be…

Mohawk artist Carrie Hill attributes her youthful good looks to basketmaking. “The secret is in the sweetgrass water—it’s an anti-aging formula,” she jokes, dabbing a little on her cheeks. When it comes to Haudenosaunee basketmaking, laughter is every bit as much a part of the process as hard work. Working side by side, Hill and her aunt and mentor Laura Mitchell easily fall into an intuitive rhythm of motion, deliberation and banter. The methods Hill and Mitchell use to pound, clean, and transform swamp dwelling timber into silken splints have remained basically unchanged for a century and a half. Native black ash and sweetgrass, once plentiful in the Haudenosaunee homelands, provided the strength and versatility to be converted into pack and storage baskets of exceptional durability. European families immigrating into…

SANTA FE, NM Tohono O’odham painter Thomas “Breeze” Marcus lives and works in a historic neighborhood in central Phoenix, a city that has been his visual playground for almost the entirety of his career. He works mostly from a studio in a garage near the rear of the house, where tubes of paint and spray cans line shelves, hip-hop rattles from a nearby speaker and his intricately designed artworks—on board, canvas, guitar bodies, vinyl records, skate decks and other materials—fill the walls, tables and easels where he works. Inside the house, in a makeshift second studio on a coffee table, are several books, including one large full-color glossy book on street and graffiti art. On top of it is a smaller book, one from a different era, with yellowed paper…

SANTA FE, NM During Memorial Day Weekend, the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture’s Native Treasures Art Market returns to the Santa Fe Community Convention Center. During the last 13 years, the event has brought in more than $4 million for artists, and nearly a million to fund exhibits and educational programs at the museum. Event co-chair Ardith Eicher sees the show as a win on multiple fronts. Settled firmly in between the Heard Guild’s March event and SWAIA’s August Indian Market, it provides an additional opportunity for artists to sell, as well as serving as a fundraiser for the museum. “Because its done on a smaller scale, it’s also a win for the attendees,” Eicher adds. “It’s intimate and relaxed, and visitors get a chance to talk to artists…

SALEM, MA T.C. Cannon (1946–1978) was born in Oklahoma to a Kiowa father and a Caddo mother. During his brief life (he died in a car crash near Santa Fe, New Mexico, when he was 31) he studied at the Institute of American Indian Art (IAIA) during its vibrant early years, was awarded two Bronze Stars in Vietnam, and put an indelible mark on contemporary Native American art. IAIA encouraged its students to learn about their traditions and to then paint how and what they wanted. Cannon was among the first to place his traditionally garbed subjects in contemporary mainstream settings. Karen Kramer writes, “Through Cannon’s figurative work, he rejected the accepted, expected representations of Native ritual life and instead chose to surface issues of the brutal traumas wrought by…

OTTAWA, ON At Ottawa, Ontario-based Walker’s Auctions’ Inuit and First Nations art auction on May 16, approximately 300 examples of historic and contemporary North American Native art in a variety of mediums will be available. “The term contemporary is a moving target when it comes to these kinds of works,” Ingo Hessel, Walker’s head of Inuit and First Nations Art, explains. “It really depends on the community, because the modern style didn’t begin across the Canadian Arctic all at the same time. It began in Arctic Quebec in the late 1950s and spread throughout the rest of Canada throughout the ’60s. So what is considered an early piece depends on the community.” A Karoo Ashevak whalebone figure, from 1972 to 1973, is expected to bring in USD$28,000 to USD$40,000. Ashevak…