Talking Feather

“The Sioux Indian Museum will feature an exhibit of Ledger art by Evans Flammond, Sr., a member of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe. The genre known as Ledger Art represents a transitional form of Plains Indian artistry. Beginning in the early 1860’s Plains Indian men adapted their representational style of painting to paper in the form of accountant’s ledger books… Like hide paintings, ledger drawings gloriously illustrated an extraordinary chronicle of the Plains Indian warriors’ heroic deeds and ultimately sealed a record of their personal history. Each drawing is from an original 1900 DAWES county claim register ledger.” G. Montileaux-DreamhorseCreations

Ledger art by Evans Flammond, Sr. Image courtesy Evans Flammond

Rapid City – The Sioux Indian Museum, administered by the Indian Arts and Crafts Board of the U.S. Department of the Interior, will feature an exhibit of ledger art by Evans Flammond, Sr. from May 8 to July 5, 2015. The exhibition is free and open to the public.

Excerpt: Evans Flammond, Sr., and the Dream Horse

“Evans Flammond, Sr. is a skilled artist and craftsman. Born in Rosebud, SD, and raised on the Rosebud and Pine Ridge Reservations, he now lives in Oglala, SD, with his family. A self-taught artist, believes that his saga began at age 7 during a weekly trip to town with his mother.

Like many kids, he fell asleep during that trip, but he wasn’t awakened by the sound of his mother’s voice. Instead, it was a tap on the window by what he now knows to be a Golden Eagle. Evans recounts that the eagle swooped down and touched the back seat window on which his head was leaning.

Ledger art by Evans Flammond, Sr.

Evans has two sons, Evans Jr. and Edward, who are also exceptional artists and aspiring musicians. Evans seeks to portray Lakota art as adaptable and innovative as he draws from designs of the past.
He feels he is blessed to have the opportunity to travel to different parts of Europe and elsewhere, to share the story of his Culture and Beliefs with many different people. He enjoys letting people know that– Yes, we are still alive and kicking, and will continue to let the world know that this is who we are.”

Ledger art by Evans Flammond, Sr. Image courtesy Evans Flammond.

Prices for the artwork in the exhibition can be obtained by contacting The Journey Museum Store at (605) 394-2201. To purchase artwork after the exhibit closes, please contact Evans Flammond, Sr., by email at dreamhorsecreations5150@yahoo.com

“I choose so proudly to place a silhouette of one or two eagles in each piece I create, giving thanks for the great Gift that the Eagle gave to me.” – Evans Flammond, Sr.

“The vivid colors and bold shapes of Crow artist Kevin Red Star are now available for your very own coffee table, in a beautiful new book that explores the painter’s life and art.” ICTMN

Discussion Questions for this post

Book: Kevin Red Star- Crow Indian Artist. Written by Daniel Gibson,.

Excerpt: The Bold, Vivid Works of Crow Artist Kevin Red Star by G.Courey Toensing, ICTMN

“Kevin Red Star: Crow Indian Artist (Gibbs Smith, 2014) is the first large-format, hardcover book about one of the most acclaimed Native American artists of our time. Red Star’s contemporary style—part abstract, part representational and wholly unique—along with his vibrant colors combine in images that convey a deep love for his subject matter: traditional Crow Indian culture.

Evening Mountain Horses by Kevin Red Star.

Born in 1943 into a family of creative people, Red Star was raised on the Crow reservation in Southwestern Montana…I always wanted to be an artist,Red Star says in the book. I remember drawing pictures—such as scenery, horses and tipis—but most of all I just enjoyed doodling.

In 1962, Red Star was among 150 students chosen to attend the then newly established Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where he explored Crow history and culture via modern art techniques.

Dancers by Kevin Red Star.

Red Star later received scholarships to the San Francisco Art Institute, where he was exposed to the avant garde and political and social concerns of post-modern art. While there he began winning prizes and awards for his artwork, and his career as a major American Indian artist began.

Crow Chiefs at the Bitterroots by Kevin Redstar.

Blue Guitar by Kevin Red Star

Red Star’s beautiful and passionate paintings of warriors, dancersin intricate regalia, horses and the big Montana landscape are collected in the Smithsonian Institute, the Denver Museum of Fine Art, the Whitney Museum in Cody, Wyoming, the Heard Museum in Phoenix, Arizona, the Institute of American Indian Art in Santa Fe and the Eitlejorg Museum in Indianapolis, as well as elsewhere. The artist has been featured in special exhibitions around the world including shows in France, Belgium, Germany, China and Japan.”

“Indian culture has in the past been ignored to a great extent. It is for me, as well as for many other Indian artists, a rich source of creative expression.” Kevin Red Star-Crow Nation

Discussion Questions for this post

1. What state is Kevin Red Star from?
2. What year did Red Star attend the Institute of American Indian Arts?
3. Where is the Institute of American Indian Arts located?
4. Name three countries where Red Star’s work  has been on exhibition.
5. Name three  museums in the U.S. that have collections of Red Star’s work.

“New York-based artist Jeffrey Gibson twists expectations of Native American art and culture in his exhibit at the New Orleans Museum of Art during the Prospect.3 international art festival. As the P.3 website explains, A member of the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians, Gibson has long confronted Native American stereotypes, which manifest in mass-produced ‘Indian’ fabrics and crafts.” D MacCash, NOLA.

Discussion Questions for this post

Jeffrey Gibson art exhibit. Light tube in a leather quiver.

Excerpt: Prospect.3 artist Jeffrey Gibson tosses away Native American cliches at NOMA — By Doug MacCash, NOLA

“To combat the pervasive perceptions, Gibson exploits “native” craft cliches for their ironic value. In his spare assemblages, he presents woven rugs, spirit dolls, gourd masks and other presumably authentic objects.

Jeffrey Gibson art.

But in each case he does something to undermine the predicted meaning, pointing out the challenge of melding tradition and contemporary life in the process. In his most powerful sculpture, Gibson uses colorful beadwork to poignantly adorn an Everlast punching bag that hangs in the museum stairwell.

Jeffrey Gibson’s Everlast Punching Bag.

In another striking piece, he sardonically displays a pink fluorescent light tube in a leather quiver. In still another, he exhibits a Southwestern-style rug with a pattern that could have been produced by Paul Klee. 

The exhibits are on view Wednesdays through Sundays, 11 a.m.-4 p.m., through Jan. 25, 2015. The exhibit will be closed Nov. 27-28, Dec. 24-25 and Jan. 1, 2015. University venues will have longer holiday hiatuses.”

Visit the Prospect.3 website

“My influences and inspiration come from many different sources. I truly love art and taking part in larger conversations about visual culture…I look at what people have made in the past and think about why they made the choices they did, and then look at contemporary culture and consider what I want to make.” ~Jeffrey Gibson~

Discussion Questions for this post

1. Jeffrey Gibson is a member of what tribe?
2. What is NOMA?
3. Why is Jeffrey Gibson’s art described as ironic Native American craft?
4. In which state does Jeffrey Gibson live?
5. Which piece of art is described as Gibson’s most powerful sculpture? Why?

O’siyo. “Joshua Madalena believes that Jemez black-on-white pottery is the original art form of the Jemez Pueblo people…The pottery was used, based on archaeological findings, from about 1300 to 1700 AD throughout the Jemez Mountain range and surrounding areas, before being extinguished by Spanish occupation of modern day New Mexico.” H. McKosato-ICTMN

Discussion Questions for this post

Joshua Madalena with ‘Best Of Show’ replica pottery of Cliff Palace. Photo taken at Cliff Palace, Mesa Verde, CO. Credit- ICTMN

Excerpt: This Art Form Disappeared for 300 Years… By Harlan McKosato ICTMN

“Madalena, who is currently serving his third one-year term as governor of his pueblo and is also a religious leader in the community, made the hard choice of reviving this ancestral art form in the early 1990’s. After much trial and error, he successfully rediscovered the process that had been lost for nearly three centuries. In 2012 he was awarded the prestigious Lifetime Achievement Allan Houser Legacy Award at the Santa Fe Indian Market for his contributions to the Native art world.”

Joshua Madalena painting with yucca brush. Credit- ICTMN

ICTMN: What gives Jemez black-on-white pottery its special meaning and significance to your people?

JM: It is the pottery of the ancestors. It was the dominant art form for 400 years, and survived without change during that time. Contemporary art changes from one generation to the next, but Jemez black-on-white pottery didn’t change for 400 years.

ICTMN: What happened back in history that forced this art form to become wiped out?

JM: Jemez black-on-white pottery was one of the casualties of the oppression by Spain during their conquest of the Southwest (after the Pueblo Revolt of 1680).

Santa Fe Indian Market 2012 First Place Water Jar, 12 in. x 14 in. Black-on-White Ancestral pottery traditions. Credit- ICTMN

Frog bowl. Credit- ICTMN

ICTMN: What made you decide to revive this art form and bring it back from extinction?

JM: … This culture, these stories, needed to be brought back. I asked the elders but there was no memory about this art. I started visiting museums and collections in Santa Fe and throughout the Southwest in the early 1990’s. It was a very complex process. It took over 10 years.” 

“Jemez black-on-white pottery had been gone for 300 years. It needed to be reborn because I needed to find the identity of our people. I needed to find where I stood in this world and where my place was on Earth during these times.” ~Joshua Madalena~ Jemez Artist

Discussion Questions for this post

1. How old is this art form?
2. Why had the Jemez art form disappeared?
3. Why did Joshua Madalena revive this art form?
4. How long did it take Madalena to gather the information  to begin the process of creating the Jemez pots?
5. When did  Madalena know that he had successfully revived this traditional art form?

O’siyo. Native artist Kent Monkman, a member of the Cree Nation, is making waves in New York City’s Sargent’s Daughters gallery with his series of controversial paintings entitled “Urban Res”. 

The Chase, Kent Monkman, 2014. Source: sargentsdaughters.com.

Excerpt: Artist Kent Monkman’s Surreal Visions of the Urban Rez ICTMN

The Deposition, Kent Monkman, 2014. Source- sargentsdaughters.com

“In an exhibition called “Urban Res,” currently featured at Sargent’s Daughters gallery in New York City, Cree painter Kent Monkman looks at the ironies faced by today’s urban Natives. In Monkman’s canvases, Indians have survived and are living in cities.

Bête Noire, Kent Monkman,2014. Source- sargentsdaughters.com

Figures painted in the style of Pablo Picasso and Francis Bacon loaf on sidewalks or stare sullenly from doorways. Angels from Western religious art are present, though what they’re doing isn’t clear — are they rescuing a wounded Henry Moore-style sculpture, or simply stealing it?  In two of the paintings, a group of urban Indigenous youth are stepping in to try to save artwork that is in trouble. In another painting, an Indian on a motorcycle speeds down the street, taking aim with his bow and arrow at a herd of buffalo — some of which are cubist. To learn more about Kent Monkman and his work, visit kentmonkman.com

 Memorial Day Remembrance

“This Memorial Day, Honor the Water, Remember the Fallen, and Protect the Mounds” ~Mary Annette Pember~ ICTMN

 

 “Remembering Those Who Have Fallen And Those Who Still Stand to Fight…For Us.” 

O’siyo.This month the The Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art located on Johnson County Community College campus in Overland Park, Kansas, is presenting their beautiful and unusual Native American art exhibit. The Native artists represent various tribes and express their individuality and cultural roots through their unique  art pieces.To learn more about the artists presented here click on their photos.

Wendy Red Star (Crow), Fall, Four Seasons Series, 2006. Nerman Museum.

Artist Wendy Red Star (Crow).

Excerpt: Contemporary American Indian Artworks…Katherine Brooks, The Huff Post
“The exhibition, conveniently named Contemporary American Indian Art: The Nerman Museum Collection, hit the Overland Park location last month, bringing 55 works by 43 different artists to the forefront of its gallery spaces. The artists hail from the far corners of the country, from the Pacific Northwest across the Plains to the Northeast, providing an overview of not only the museum’s ongoing efforts to build a major collection of contemporary American Indian art, but also the wild and vibrant aesthetics that exemplify the genre.

Jeffrey Gibson (Cherokee:Choctaw), American Girl, 2013, Found punching bag, Johnson County Community College.

Jeffrey Gibson (Cherokee:Choctaw).

From Jackie Larson Bread’s The Cover of the Rolling Stone, embroidered in buckskin and beads on a laptop sleeve, to Clinton Work’s embellished polyurethane Clamming Bucket, the works on view displace time and ritual, merging the utilitarian artifacts of traditional culture with the political and philosophical musings of contemporary society. Bits of popular and commercial culture, such as branded sporting equipment, are transformed into figments of a hybrid universe, one that simultaneously pays homage to indigenous art forms while nodding to the experimentation of American Indian artists across media and perspectives today.

Thomas Red Owl Haukaas (Lakota), Haukaas cradleboard Economic Conundrum, 2010, Johnson County Community College.

Thomas Red Owl Haukaas (Lakota).

The Nerman Museum, part of the Johnson County Community College, has been devoted to collecting and showcasing contemporary American Indian art for the past decade.

They join institutions like the Museum of Contemporary Native Arts in Santa Fe and the Eiteljorg Museum in Indianapolis in celebrating modern art trends from artists within the Cherokee, Choctaw, Crow, Kwakwaka’wakw, Cochiti Pueblo, Blackfeet and many more.” 

“Contemporary American Indian Art: The Nerman Museum Collection” will be on view until May 18, 2014.

“The artist is a receptacle for the emotions that come from all over the place: from the sky, from the earth, from a scrap of paper, from a passing shape, from a spider’s web.”
~Pablo Picasso~