The Arts of the North American Indian: Native Traditions in Evolution
Contemporary American Indian art is part of an ongoing struggle for identity. Ron Anderson's protest piece Car Scaffold Buriala Mercury wrapped in a funerary blanket and hoisted on a Plains burial scaffoldbespeaks the anguish of the dislocated Indian. Aleut sculptor John Hoover affirms the tribal artist's ability to communicate with the spirit world in his carved-cedar Winter Loon Dance. This collection of essays by American, Canadian and European scholars overturns the stereotype of a changeless Indian culture by investigating Native Americans' adaptation of European styles, their responses to colonialism, interaction among tribes and the continual evolution of tribal arts. Even when Amerindian artists adopt Cubist or Photorealist techniques, their goal is to give concrete form to myths and archetypes. Illustrated with nearly 300 color plates and halftones, this panorama catalogues a nationally touring exhibition.Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.--This text refers to theHardcoveredition.