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Indigenous Artists

Line, Shape and Color: Elements of Native American Art

By Chadd ScottPosted on March 30, 2021April 2, 20210 Comments
Double-Sided Drum, ca. 1890. George Beaver, Chahiksichahiks (Pawnee), Oklahoma. Rawhide, wood, iron nails, tacks, pigments.
Double-Sided Drum, ca. 1890. George Beaver, Chahiksichahiks (Pawnee), Oklahoma. Rawhide, wood, iron nails, tacks, pigments. Photograph by John Bigelow Taylor.

Native Americans didn’t develop a painting tradition until the late 1920s and 1930s with instruction from white artists at the Santa Fe Indian School. Harrison Begay was among the first Native painters to break out. Following him came some of the greatest painters of the 20th century including Fritz Scholder, T.C. Cannon, and my personal favorite, Earl Biss.

That doesn’t mean Native Americans weren’t creating. Leather work, beadwork, jewelry, baskets, ceramic, rugs… the list of functional and ceremonial items indigenous people – mostly women – were producing now fill the country’s greatest art museums.

On view April 1 through December 31, 2021, the Fenimore Art Museum in Cooperstown, New York explains how Native Americans engaged in object-making used the tenants of painting and drawing – line, shape and color – to inform their work during the exhibition, “Elegant Line/Powerful Shape: Elements of Native American Art.”

Native American artists communicate with their audiences visually, expressing the beauty of the world through shapes made by textiles, wood and pigment. Line can be painted on a carved wooden box or woven into a textile to create designs. Traditionally, artists used natural colors found in their environment, such as red clay and barkwood to create pigments. Later, as commercially produced paints and pigments became more widely available, these were incorporated into artists’ skillsets.

Line, shape, and color are created from different materials in different regions, but a textured piece of pottery from the Woodlands exemplifies line just as well as a painted hide from the Plains. Likewise, a Southwestern vessel is defined by its monochromatic gold color just as a hat from the Northwest Coast defines whales with black dyed fibers.

About Fenimore Art Museum

Fenimore Art Museum, located on the shores of Otsego Lake—James Fenimore Cooper’s “Glimmerglass”—in historic Cooperstown, New York, features a wide-ranging collection of American art including folk art; important American 18th- and 19th-century landscape, genre and portrait paintings; more than 125,000 historic photographs representing the technical developments made in photography and providing extensive visual documentation of the region’s unique history.

The renowned Eugene and Clare Thaw Collection of American Indian Art comprises nearly 900 art objects representative of a broad geographic range of North American Indian cultures, from the Northwest Coast, Eastern Woodlands, Plains, Southwest, Great Lakes and Prairie regions.

The Fenimore Art Museum is open April 1–December 31, 2021. Spring hours (April 1–May 2): 10:00 a.m.–4:00 p.m., Tuesday through Sunday (closed Mondays). Summer hours begin May 3: open daily 10:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m.

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Helen Frankenthaler’s ‘Eden Revisited’ (1967 Helen Frankenthaler’s ‘Eden Revisited’ (1967-1976) sure to brighten your day, it did mine on a recent visit to @sama_art @visitsanantonio. Stunning, vivid, massive (10-plus-feet tall), expressive… up close you can see the paint stains. 
I see so much drama in this painting, so much certainty, confidence. Of all the past artists I could have met, @helenfrankenthalerfoundation would be high on the list.
#helenfrankenthaler #colorfieldpainting #greatwomenartists #femaleartist #womenshistorymonth #yellow #orange #painting #modernart #visitsanantonio
3 showstoppers from @_wiggins_ at @briscoemuseum @ 3 showstoppers from @_wiggins_ at @briscoemuseum @visitsanantonio. Kim’s mark making and color are instantly recognizable and I DIG it! 
#visitsanantonio #westernart #westernartist #santafe #cowboy #purple
Harold Newton (left) and Alfred Hair side-by-side Harold Newton (left) and Alfred Hair side-by-side at @tampamuseumofart. To learn more about the original Florida Highwaymen artist, click the link in my bio.
#floridahighwaymen #haroldnewton #alfredhair #florida #floridalife #floridaartist #floridaart #floridaartists #blackartist #floridahistory
OVERWHELMED by this exhibition of #purvisyoung art OVERWHELMED by this exhibition of #purvisyoung artwork on view at @tampamuseumofart! 
What most caught my eye were all the 18-wheelers. Are these a reference to “urban renewal” and the siting of I-95 through the heart of Young’s #overtown #miami neighborhood. 
As occurred across America during 1950s-80s, so-called urban renewal was a tactic used by white politicians to destroy thriving Black communities by running interstates through them to aide white suburbanites in getting to jobs in town faster.
Young experienced Overtown on both sides of #urbanrenewal and I can’t help thinking all these trucks are commentary on I-95.
#miamilife #tampa #tampaflorida #artmuseum #blackart #blackartist #blackartmatters #selftaughtartist
I was writing about @ronjonofficial for my “My F I was writing about @ronjonofficial for my “My Favorite Florida” column on Rovology.com travel site this morning. My first visit was 86ish, my most recent visit came last month. 
#ronjonsurfshop #ronjon #cocoabeach #cocoabeachflorida #surfing #surflife #80s #80sfashion
“Florida Highwaymen: Dashboard Dreams” closes “Florida Highwaymen: Dashboard Dreams” closes at @aebackusmuseum 2/26. Best chance all year to see original Florida Highwaymen paintings. 
More info about Highwaymen check link in bio.
“Cocktails & Dreams” neon at @treylorparkhitch “Cocktails & Dreams” neon at @treylorparkhitch in #savannah. Who gets it?
#savannahgeorgia #cocktails #tomcruise #movie
Check out this #keithharing ceiling above the @nyh Check out this #keithharing ceiling above the @nyhistory admission desk! It comes from his #soho Pop Shop retail location which he opened in 1986 and was operated by @keithharingfoundation until 2005. 
Second pic his remix of a #subway sign. New-York Historical Society has an AMAZING modern + contemporary art collection. Highlight of my recent visit.
#subwayart #newyorksubway #newyorkhistory #newyorkhistoricalsociety #newyorkcity #newyorklife #streetart #graffiti #graffitiart
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