This illuminating and provocative book is the first anthology devoted to Twentieth Century Native American and First Nation art. Native American Art brings together anthropologists, art historians, curators, critics and distinguished Native artists to discuss pottery, painting, sculpture, printmaking, photography and performance art by some of the most celebrated Native American and Canadian First Nation artists of our time.
The contributors use new theoretical and critical approaches to address key issues for Native American art, including symbolism and spirituality, the role of patronage and museum practices, the politics of art criticism and the aesthetic power of indigenous knowledge. The artist contributors, who represent several Native nations - including Cherokee, Lakota, Plains Cree, and those of the Plateau country - emphasize the importance of traditional stories, mythologies and ceremonies in the production of contemporary art. Within great poignancy, they write about recent art in terms of home, homeland and aboriginal sovereignty.

Native American Art in the Twentieth Century

Tracing the continued resistance of Native artists to dominant orthodoxies of the art market and art history, Native American Art in the Twentieth Century argues forcefully for Native art's place in modern art history.