North American Indian Art

World of Art

by David W. Penney, George Horse Capture

A splendidly illustrated introduction to the rich history of Native American art, distinguished by its broad coverage and nuanced discussion. This timely new book surveys the artistic traditions of indigenous North America, from those of ancient cultures such as Adena, Hopewell, Mississippian, and Anasazi to the work of modern artists like Earnest Spybuck, Fred Kabotie, Dick West, T. C. Cannon, and Gerald McMaster. The text is organized geographically and draws upon the testimonies of oral tradition, Native American history, and the latest research in North American archaeology.

Recent art historical scholarship has helped restore, to a large degree, some understanding of the identities and cultural roles of Native American artists and the social contexts of the objects they created. Native American art is often discussed simply as a cultural production rather than the work of individual artists who made objects to fufill social and cultural purposes; this book focuses as much as possible on the artists themselves, their cultural identities, and the objects they made even when the names of the individual artists remain unrecoverable.

But this is not a book of artists' biographies. It seeks to inform a general readership about the history of Native American art with a lively narrative full of historical incident and illustrated with provocative and superlative works of art. It explores the tension between artistic continuities spanning thousands of years and the startlingly fresh innovations that resulted from specific historical circumstances. The narrative weaves together so-called "traditional" arts, "tourist" arts, and Native American art of today by taking the point of view of their particular and local histories―the artists, their communities, and audiences.

Among the many cultures included Arapaho, Athapascan, Cherokee, Cheyenne, Chumash, Hopi, Hupa/Karok, Inuit, Iroquois, Kwakiutl, Lakota, Miwok, Navajo, Ojibwa, Pomo, Tlingit, Tsimshian, Uypik, and Zuni.  180 illustrations, 80 in color

Genres: Art History, Art, Nonfiction, Anthropology, Native Americans

224 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 2004

Reviews

[Stevie · Rating 3 out of 5]

With the amount of how many times I almost fell asleep in this class, I'm glad I'm passing with an A-.

[Georges Bureau · Rating 3 out of 5]

The summarize of such a vast area is certainly one of the most difficult exercice that an art historian can do. The classical tone and the geo-chronological classification afford a good covering of the subject. However there is no presence of strong ideas about the specificity of Native art or theories on anthropology of art.
Nicholas Thomas in this series from Thames and Hudson has certainly produced the most achieved opus with his Oceanic Art.
However I really appreciate the sense of humour in the depiction of Santa Fe even if the part of Far West needs further definition concerning the Geographical-cultural area.

[Adam · Rating 2 out of 5]

I expected this to be better. The one about postwar American art is good. The pictures are nice, but it feels like some regions and time periods are given a really short shrift. The "date I read this book" date is completely made up. I can't remember.

[Brandon Fryman · Rating 4 out of 5]

The pictures and the history in this book are awesome. The author breaks it down into a couple of areas and really explains the cultural background of each tribes artwork. Great for anthropology students, art students, Native American history students etc.