Visions and voices: Native American painting from the Philbrook Museum of Art

Abstract

Native American Painting of the twentieth century has its origins in the decoration of prehistoric pottery, clothing, wood, and hide objects, and in pictographs and petroglyphs painted or inscribed on rocky hillsides. After Native contact with European Americans, Indian art absorbed influences from white culture, and the materials used for painting began to include papers, inks, pencils, and commercial pigments. The 484 paintings shown in this book, all from the collection of the Philbrook Museum of Art in Tulsa, Oklahoma, reflect many major influences on Indian art. From a ledger-style painting of the Battle of Little Bighorn (c. 1892) to a canvas that expresses a Native view of the Vietnam War (c. 1971), the range of imagery is amazingly broad. The text of the catalogue section of the book comes primarily from the actual words of artists represented in the collection, and those of their friends and families, gathered through interviews. Together, these narratives and the beautifully reproduced body of paintings tell the fascinating story of Native American painting in modern America.