|
|
|
|
Site Index | CVA Index | Site Map | Native American Home
|
|
|
|
Issues in Contemporary Native Art: Case Study in Pueblo Art
(see .pdf file for images)
Definitions
"Modern" art: does this require art produced with Western media dealing with contemporary issues? Can it include traditional topics?
Native modern art: Western representational styles, genres, and media to produce works that function as autonomous entities experienced independent of ceremonies.
Belief System Foundations
All beings mutually dependent.
All have obligation to fulfill sacred duties.
Cosmic and earthly imbalance and lack of harmony can bring disaster to all.
Sources of Conflict
Market for native art: creates conflict in values.
Two main areas of conflict:
Relationships with the supernatural.
Proper behavior within an egalitarian society.
Problem Areas: Sacred Art
Depiction of ceremonies.
Sale of sacred masks and dance costumes.
Partial solution: creation and sale of facsimiles that are not sacred.
Role of Indian Artist
Measures of success differ in cultures.
Money, publicity, prestige valued in non-Indian society, but arouse great suspicion in traditional Indian societies.
Success as an artist jeopardizes position at home.
Role Conflict
Traditional culture: role of artist carried little prestige.
Men: farming.
Women: maintaining home, children, food processing.
Two Phases of Pueblo Art
Pueblo art produced by Indian artists for local use.
Pueblo art produced by contemporary Indian artists for the wider art market.
Pueblo Art before 1880
Many indigenous art forms.
Pottery: well known example.
2 traditions with special impact influence later artists:
Sikyatki Polychrome.
Mimbres Black-on-white.
Railroad and Art
Revival of Pueblo Art in late 19th, early 20th centuries.
1875: Keams Canyon Trading Post.
Nampeyo’s pottery:
Hano Polychrome.
Designed after Sikyatki Polychrome.
Nampeyo at work.
Sikyatki Polychrome
Nampeyo Hano Polychrome
Nampeyo Kachina Dancer
San Ildefonso and Pottery
1920s: pottery production became most profitable occupation for women.
Means of accumulating wealth for women; husbands often excluded.
Maria and Julian Martinez: husband/wife team.
Maria Martinez
Maria Jar with Avanyu
Maria Martinez
OllaMartinez Pottery Industry
Techniques to increase production.
Success from innovation in polished slip.
Mass production/labor support.
Marketing: Fred Harvey tours.
Wholesaler negotiations.
Social Changes From Economic Development
Two class system: workers and "management."
North Plaza: successful potters.
South Plaza: traditional farmers.
Political "coup:" North Plaza.
Factors in Social Change
Commercial relations with Anglos brought change:
Successful artist families withdrew from community mutual dependence.
Creation of two classes.
Political affairs geared to good relations with Anglos for economic reasons.
Changed definitions of "success."
Kachina Dolls
Traditional dolls very simple in form. Masks, identification important, not realism.
Later period: Kachinas now highly natural, emphasizing activity and detail. (Action figures.)
Crow Bride Kachina
19th CenturyHopi "whipping" Kachina with Koshare Clown
Pueblo Painters
Pictorial narration in Pueblo art had existed in rock art.
Pueblo easel painting developed in 20th century.
Painters studying at the Santa Fe Indian school developed a style which still persists.
Fred Kabotie, Hopi Ceremonial Dance
Pablita Velarde
Born in Santa Clara, 1918.
One of 1st women to study with Dorothy Dunn at the Santa Fe Indian School.
Exhibited at the Chicago World’s fair at age 15.
Subjects: traditional pueblo life.
Daughter: painter Helen Hardin.
Pablita Velarde
Buffalo DancersPablita Velarde Corn Dancers
Pablita Velarde, Sun Basket Dance
Pablita Velarde
Mimbres TurtlesPablita Velarde Awatovi Mural
Helen Hardin
Daughter of Pablita Velarde, born at Santa Clara in 1943.
Attended University of New Mexico for one year, but no formal training in art.
Drew on Ancient Pueblo and Mimbres symbolism.
Died in 1984, at age of 41.
Hardin, The Eternal Hunt
Helen Hardin Hopi Illusion
Hardin – Bountiful Mother
Hardin – Changing Woman
Hardin – Listening Woman
Hardin – Medicine Woman
Hardin
Guardians of the Night
1984Hardin – Last Dance of the Mimbres
1984 - unfinished(many other artists shown)
Mixed Media
Native American artists also working in media outside the studio.
Edgar Heap of Birds (Cheyenne/Arapaho) – installation of signs on Mississippi river commemorating Dakota Uprising and executions.
Rebecca Belmore, Ojibwa, installation of chairs with audio of Native women telling stories.
