Briefly: The American Indian Collection
Joslyn Art Museum's collection of American Indian art features historic and contemporary painting, sculpture, drawings, prints, and objects by the native peoples of North America. Highlights of the collection include ledger books by Howling Wolf and White Horse and a beaded jacket belonging to Logan Fontenelle, grandson of the renowned Omaha chief Big Elk. Contemporary American Indian works include paintings and works on paper by Fritz Scholder, Jaune Quick-To-See Smith, and Arthur Amiotte; sculptures by Allan Houser and Bob Haozous; and photographs by Zig Jackson and Victor Masayesva, Jr; as well as contemporary interpretations of traditional objects and materials.
Below are highlights selected from Joslyn's American Indian collection.
American Indian
.jpg)
|
Artist Unknown (American, Yupik, 19th century),
Visor
, n.d.,
wood, ivory, paint, feathers, plant and animal fiber, 7¼ x 13¼ x 9¾ inches, 16.83 cm long
Gift of Mrs. A.F. Jonas, 1952.45
The wooden hats and visors worn by Native Alaskan hunters provided protection from the glare of water and ice, while the beak-like appearance might have made a hunter in a kayak less noticeable to his prey. Further, the visor may have been spiritually as well as physically transformational, giving a hunter supernatural strengths and skills as well as masking his human identity.
MORE DETAILS 
|
.jpg)
|
Artist Unknown (American, Haida, 19th century),
Mask
, n.d.,
painted wood with glass insets, 10½ x 9, 26.67 x 22.86 cm
Museum purchase, 1959.535
For the peoples of the Northwest Coast and Alaska, masked dances have long been a ritual focal point; the masks give form and life to powerful beings. One type of Haida mask was carved for ceremonies honoring chiefs and ancestors. The masks representing these personages had human faces, although it is not certain that they were actually portraits. This portrayal of a freckled Euro-American is unusual; it could have been a commission, or it could have been seen as a means of assuming a foreigner’s powers.
MORE DETAILS
|
.jpg)
|
Artist Unknown (American, Omaha, 19th century),
Jacket
, ca. 1850,
hide, beads, silk, and bone, 29 x 18½ inches, 73.66 x 46.99 cm
Gift of Wilmuth V. Carpenter in memory of James Franklin Carpenter, 1985.3
This jacket is said to have belonged to Logan Fontenelle (1825-1855), a notable figure in Omaha Indian history. His father was a prominent French trader, his mother the daughter of an Omaha chief. Fontenelle accompanied the 1854 Omaha delegation that signed the treaty establishing the Omaha reservation in Nebraska. While several stylistic features of his jacket seem early for 1850 the son of an active trader may have had a keen interest in and access to new imported goods and styles before they were commonly available.
MORE DETAILS
|
.jpg)
|
Artist Unknown (American, Navajo, 19th century),
Serape
, ca. 1870–75,
wool, 70 x 51 inches, 177.8 x 129.54 cm
Gift of Mrs. A. H. Richardson, 1956.90
The serape, a universal garment of the Navajo worn around the shoulders, is particularly striking with its diamond lattice and bi-color crosses. The white is the natural wool, the green probably from a yellow plant dye combined with indigo, and the red likely a yarn painstakingly respun from imported scarlet cloth.
MORE DETAILS
|
.jpg)
|
Harrison Begay (Haskay Yahne Yah) (American, Navajo, born 1917),
Untitled (Scene from Enemyway Ceremony)
, ca. 1960,
tempera on paper, 22 3/8 x 30 1/2, 56.83 x 77.47 cm
Museum purchase with funds provided by Collector's Choice V, 1992.24
Harrison Begay focuses on portryals of traditional Navajo life. His distinctive paintings are characterized by a delicacy of line and color, simple but realistic detail, and a sense of warm serenity.
MORE DETAILS
|
.jpg)
|
Oscar Howe (American, Yanktonai Nakota (Sioux), 1915-1983),
The Origin of Corn
, 1949,
tempera on paper, 21 3/8 x 29 3/8 in.
Gift of Morton Steinhart, 1949.180
Howe is one of the most widely recognized and respected of all twentieth-century Native American painters. Among his important early works are a number of commissioned murals. The Origin of Corn is a design study for one of these, installed first at Steinhart Lodge in a Nebraska City park and subsequently moved to the town’s City Hall. The subject reflects Howe’s lifelong dedication to sharing the rich oral traditions of Sioux culture: a young man, representing his tribe, ceremonially welcomes a new plant given by the spirits to benefit the people.
MORE DETAILS
|
.jpg)
|
Mató-Tópe (Four Bears) (American, Mandan, ca. 1795–1837),
Battle with a Cheyenne Chief
, 1833,
watercolor and pencil on paper, 12 3/8 x 15 3/8 inches, 31.43 x 39.05 cm
Gift of Enron Art Foundation, 1986.49.384
Four Bears was one of the first Plains artists to show the clear influence of European style and media. Painted with materials given to him by artist Karl Bodmer and his patron, Prince Maximilian, Four Bears’ scene shows him wearing a warbonnet and wresting a knife from his enemy. Note the attention given to facial features and to hands and feet. Such particulars would have been considered extraneous by Four Bears’ contemporaries; they focused on other factors more important in identifying individuals, such as the distinctive shield carried by a particular warrior.
MORE DETAILS
|