Southwest Indian Painting

Lists names and activities by Indian artists and includes photographs of their work.

For the Southwestern Indians, painting was a natural part of all the arts and ceremonies through which they expressed their perception of the universe and their sense of identification with nature. It was wholly lacking in individualism, included no portraits, singled out no artists. But the roving life of the Plains Indians produced a more personal art. Their painted hides were records of an individual's exploits intended, not to supplicate or appease unearthly powers, but to gain prestige within the tribe and proclaim invincibility to an enemy. Plains painting served man-to-man relationships, Southwestern painting those of man to nature, man to God. Such characteristics, and the ways they persist in contemporary Indian painting, are documented by the 157 examples Miss Dunn has chosen to illustrate her story. Thirty-three of these pictures, in full color, are here published for the first time.

The decorative art of the Indians of the American Southwest has long been recognized as one of the most beautiful art traditions in the primitive world. It demonstrates a technical skill with simple materials, a symbolic richness, and a faculty for creating rich effects by the imaginative use of ornament that are all almost unique. Museums use Pueblo ceramics for display pieces, and modern artists and crafters have turned eagerly to the handwork of prehistoric Indian women for inspiration and working ideas. Mrs. Dorothy Sides, a noted artist and collector, has gathered together and redrawn in black and white nearly 300 examples of the finest authentic Southwestern Indian decoration that she has seen in a lifetime of study. She has not limited her selection to one period or style, however; to make her book as useful as possible, she has selected material ranging from the thirteenth century great geometric art of the Pueblos to the handcrafts carried on by the nomadic and Pueblo peoples of the present. The main emphasis of this volume is on ceramic decoration, and Mrs. Sides includes pieces from the rich archeological sites of Pecos, Sikyatki, the Mimbres, and modern Pueblo pottery from Acoma, Zuni, Cochiti, and the Hopi. She also includes designs and motifs from the basketry of the Apache, Pima, and Papago; beadwork from the Mohave; authentic Zuni masks; Hopi kachina dolls; and sand paintings and blanket designs from the Navajo. This broad coverage of beautiful ornament illustrates many different art styles to fit every situation: geometric designs based upon balanced mirror fields of design, symbolic figures of the thunderbird, and modern stylizations. All is beautiful and imaginative. Any crafter working with ceramics will find this book indispensable as a source of rich, easily used, powerful design; workers in wood, weavers, metal workers, and leather workers will find that it will enlarge their decorative resources considerably. It also offers unusual and eye-catching designs for commercial artists who wish to do work suggesting travel, handcrafts, the Southwest, or the social sciences. Individual drawings are royalty-free and may be reproduced without fee or permission. "Worthy of an honored place in the library of aboriginal American art." — F. H. Hodge, Director, Southwestern Museum.

The comprehensive book on Indian petroglyphs in the Southwest.

This colorful and reusable stencil collection introduces youngsters (as well as craftworkers looking for new ideas) to six intriguing Southwest Indian tribal designs. Adapted from handmade craft items such as fabrics, pottery, and basketware, the pre-cut patterns strikingly depict authentic Pueblo lizard and bird motifs, anthropomorphic designs of the Navajo and Hopi tribes, and more.

The first biography in over sixty years of a great American artist whose paintings are more famous than the man who made them. George Catlin has been called the “first artist of the West,” as none before him lived among and painted the Native American tribes of the Northern Plains. After a false start as a painter of miniatures, Catlin found his calling: to fix the image of a “vanishing race” before their “extermination”—his word—by a government greedy for their lands. In the first six years of the 1830s, he created over six hundred portraits—unforgettable likenesses of individual chiefs, warriors, braves, squaws, and children belonging to more than thirty tribes living along the upper Missouri River. Political forces thwarted Catlin’s ambition to sell what he called his “Indian Gallery” as a national collection, and in 1840 the artist began three decades of self-imposed exile abroad. For a time, his exhibitions and writings made him the most celebrated American expatriate in London and Paris. He was toasted by Queen Victoria and breakfasted with King Louis-Philippe, who created a special gallery in the Louvre to show his pictures. But when he started to tour “live” troupes of Ojibbewa and Iowa, Catlin and his fortunes declined: He changed from artist to showman, and from advocate to exploiter of his native performers. Tragedy and loss engulfed both. This brilliant and humane portrait brings to life George Catlin and his Indian subjects for our own time. An American original, he still personifies the artist as a figure of controversy, torn by conflicting demands of art and success.