The Arts of the North American Indian: Native Traditions in Evolution [SOLD]

The Arts of the North American Indian: Native Traditions in Evolution

Edited by Edwin L. Wade

Hudson Hill Press, New York, in association with Philbrook Art Center, Tulsa

Hardcover, first edition 1986.  324 pages, illustrated. Excellent condition

From the Jacket:
This lavishly produced volume provides a unique and comprehensive look at the rich tradition of American Indian art. Fourteen authors, including many of the most distinguished American, Canadian, and European authorities in the field, explore the aesthetic phenomena of Native American art.

The range of their investigation, which includes sociological, anthropological, and art-historical viewpoints, covers a period of more than three thousand years and more than sixty tribes, representing all the major culture areas: Alaskan, Eskimo, Subarctic, Northwest Coast, Plateau, Plains, Great Basin, Southwest, Eastern Woodlands, and Southeast. Hundreds of objects are reproduced-along with much rare documentary material, including photographs of the artists and ceremonies-in 67 colorplates and 211 halftone illustrations. The art ranges from the traditional to the avant garde, and includes ledger drawings, paintings, pottery, blankets, beadwork, carvings, moccasins, jewelry, masks, basketry, and more.

The Arts of the North American Indian is organized to confront seven major issues: meaning, tradition, aesthetics, quality, the place of the creative individual in a tribal society, controversy, and the future (including the interrelationship of Native American art and mainstream modernism). It accomplishes admirably the goal set forth by the project's editor, Edwin L. Wade, Curator of Non-European Art at Philbrook Art Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma: "Posterity deserves at least an accurate record of the brilliance of native traditions, for we, the civilized, have yet to surpass them in either conviction or vision." That vision is captured magnificently in this beautiful volume, the most important book published in many years on the arts of the North American Indian.

Contents

Introduction: What is Native American Art?

MEANING

The Meanings of Native American Art

Aesthetic Archives: The Visual Language of Plains Ledger Art

TRADITION

Tradition in Native American Art

European Influences on Plains Indian Art

AESTHETICS

Aesthetics in Native American Art

The Dancing Headdress Frontlet:

Aesthetic Context on the Northwest Coast

QUALITY

Determining Quality in Native American Art

Sculptural Arts of North America

INDIVIDUALITY

The Individual in Native American Art: The Sociological View

Washo Innovators and Their Patrons

CONTROVERSY

Controversy in Native American Art

Straddling the Cultural Fence:

The Conflict for Ethnic Artists within Pueblo Societies

THE FUTURE

Frames of Reference:

Native American Art in the Context of Modern and Postmodern Art

Tall Visitor at the Indian Gallery;

or, The Future of Native American Art