INTRODUCTION TO AMERICAN INDIAN ART - 2 Volumes [SOLD]

INTRODUCTION TO AMERICAN INDIAN ART to Accompany the First Exhibition of American Indian Art Selected Entirely with Consideration of Esthetic Value

Two Volumes
The exposition was held in 1931
Softcover

Volume I contains the overall Introduction to the Exhibit with 58 pages and 35 color and black and white illustrations.  The Editorial Board was Frederick Webb Hodge, Dr. Herbert J. Spinden and Oliver LaFarge.

Excerpt from Volume I Introduction:

Our museums have collected Indian manufactures with scientific intent, placing as it were, the choice vase and the homely cooking pot side by side.  Bound by the necessity of giving a whole picture they have not been able to set forth their many beautiful specimens in an advantageous manner.  The casual tourist who goes out to the Indian country likes to bring back some knickknack as a souvenir and proudly displays it as a "genuine Indian" article.  Unhappily, Americans know the art of this Indian chiefly through such cheap curios made for the gullible white man.

It is a far cry, indeed, from such miserable knickknacks to the water-colours of young Pueblo Indian artists, reproduced in this book.  To any sensitive person, it is obvious that on the basis of these alone, our "curio concept" of the American Indian must be revised.  The Indian artist deserves to be classed as a Modernist, his art is old, yet alive and dynamic; but his modernism is an expression of a continuing vigour seeking new outlets.

Volumes II contains over 150 pages of detailed individual chapters by different artists covering the entire exhibition.  Each article is profusely illustrated with photographs. 

Article titles are as follows:

Fine Art and the First Americans by Herbert J. Spinden

Indian Symbolism by Herbert J. Spinden

Indian Poetry by Mary Austin

Modern Indian Painting by Alice Corbin Henderson

Sand-Painting of the Navaho Indians by Laura Adams Armer

Indian Pottery by Kenneth M. Chapman

Indian Sculpture and Carving by Neil M. Judd

Indian Masks by Charles C. Willoughby

Indian Basketry by E. W. Gifford

Indian Weaving by Mary Lois Kissell

Indian Porcupine-Quill and Beadwork by William C. Orchard

Books on Indian Arts North of Mexico compiled by Ruth Gaines

Condition: Both volumes have paper covers, front and back, and they have tears here and there. The interior pages of both volumes are very fine.