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In this sweeping work of memoir and commentary, leading cultural critic Paul Chaat Smith illustrates with dry wit and brutal honesty the contradictions of life in "the Indian business." Raised in suburban Maryland and Oklahoma, Smith dove head first into the political radicalism of the 1970s, working with the American Indian Movement until it dissolved into dysfunction and infighting. Afterward he lived in New York, the city of choice for political exiles, and eventually arrived in Washington, D.C., at the newly minted National Museum of the American Indian ("a bad idea whose time has come") as a curator. In his journey from fighting activist to federal employee, Smith tells us he has discov...
For a brief but brilliant season beginning in the late 1960s, American Indians seized national attention in a series of radical acts of resistance. Like a Hurricane is a gripping account of the dramatic, breathtaking events of this tumultuous period. Drawing on a wealth of archival materials, interviews, and the authors' own experiences of these events, Like a Hurricane offers a rare, unflinchingly honest assessment of the period's successes and failures.
The most comprehensive portrait of art criticism ever assembled, as told by the leading writers of our time. In the last fifty years, art criticism has flourished as never before. Moving from niche to mainstream, it is now widely taught at universities, practiced in newspapers, magazines, and online, and has become the subject of debate by readers, writers, and artists worldwide. Equal parts oral history and analysis of craft, What It Means to Write About Art offers an unprecedented overview of American art writing. These thirty in-depth conversations chart the role of the critic as it has evolved from the 1960s to today, providing an invaluable resource for aspiring artists and writers alik...
Kindred Spirits looks at the influence of indigenous art from the American south west on modern and contemporary art. It juxtaposes funerary vessels, paintings, pottery, weavings and baskets from 14 tribes, including the Apache, Hopi, Mimbres, Navajo and Zuni, with works by Ansel Adams, Josef Albers, Max Ernst, Agnes Martin, Sumner Matteson, Georgia O'Keeffe, Jackson Pollock, Paul Strand and many others, in which tribal motifs, patterns and subject matter are adapted to modernist concerns. Also examined here is the impact of nineteenth-century anthropological publications by authors and illustrators such as George Catlin and Karl Bodmer, as well as Henry Rowe Schoolcraft's legendary Historical and Statistical Information, Respecting the History, Conditions and Prospects of the Indian Tribes of the United States (1847-1857)-publications that provided the earliest portraits of Native American culture. Contemporary artists Andrea Geyer, Simon J. Ortiz and Nicholas Galanin offer reflections on the social and political significance of the Native American peoples and how these factors have shaped their own work.
The Education of Little Tree has been embedded in controversy since the revelation that the autobiographical story told by Forrest Carter was a complete fabrication. The touching novel, which has entranced readers since it was first published in 1976, has since raised questions, many unanswered, about how this quaint and engaging tale of a young, orphaned boy could have been written by a man whose life was so overtly rooted in hatred. How can this story, now discovered to be fictitious, fill our hearts with so much emotion as we champion Little Tree’s childhood lessons and future successes? The Education of Little Tree tells with poignant grace the story of a boy who is adopted by his Cher...
What is American Indian photography? At the turn of the twentieth century, Edward Curtis began creating romantic images of American Indians, and his works—along with pictures by other non-Native photographers—came to define the field. Yet beginning in the second half of the nineteenth century, American Indians themselves started using cameras to record their daily activities and to memorialize tribal members. Through a Native Lens offers a refreshing, new perspective by highlighting the active contributions of North American Indians, both as patrons who commissioned portraits and as photographers who created collections. In this richly illustrated volume, Nicole Dawn Strathman explores h...
This collection of work by both Native and non-Native artists speaks of the complexity of Native American historical and cultural influences in contemporary culture. Rather than focusing on artists who attempt to maintain strict cultural practices, it brings together a group of artists who engage the larger contemporary art world and are not afraid to step beyond the bounds of tradition. Focusing on a group of 10 artists who came of age since the initial Native Rights movement of the 1960s and 70s, the book emphasizes art that does not so much "look Indian," but incorporates Native content in surprising and innovative ways that defy easy categorization. The Native artists featured here focus on the evolution of cultural traditions. The non-Native artists focus primarily on the history of European colonization in America. Artists include Matthew Buckingham, Lewis deSoto, Peter Edlund, Nicholas Galanin, Jeffrey Gibson, Rigo 23, Duane Slick, Marie Watt, Edie Winograde and Yoram Wolberger.
Art for a New Understanding, an exhibition from Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art that opened in October 2018, seeks to radically expand and reposition the narrative of American art since 1950 by charting a history of the development of contemporary Indigenous art from the United States and Canada, beginning when artists moved from more regionally-based conversations and practices to national and international contemporary art contexts. This fully illustrated volume includes essays by art historians and historians and reflections by the artists included in the collection. Also included are key contemporary writings—from the 1950s onward—by artists, scholars, and critics, investigati...
The Oxford Handbook of American Indian History presents the story of the indigenous peoples who lived-and live-in the territory that became the United States. It describes the major aspects of the historical change that occurred over the past 500 years with essays by leading experts, both Native and non-Native, that focus on significant moments of upheaval and change.
Published in conjunction with the first North American survey of the work of Jimmie Durham, this beautifully illustrated catalogue explores Durham's vital contributions to contemporary art since the 1970s, both in the US and internationally. Born of Cherokee descent, in 1940s Arkansas, Jimmie Durham takes up such issues as the politics of representation, histories of genocide, and citizenship and exile. This volume collects an array of Durham's sculptures, drawings, photography, video, and performance. It includes essays about Durham's material choices and their metaphoric potential; his participation in the NYC art scene in the 1980s; his use of language; and his ties to Mexico after living in Cuernavaca. An interview with Durham traces his involvement with the American Indian Movement and his self-exile from the US, which along with his essays and poetry, illuminate his life and work. This book provides an opportunity to gain a deeper understanding of Durham, arguably one of the most important artists working today.