By Donna Tennant
Earth Songs, Moon Dreams: Paintings by American Indian Women
By Patricia Janis Broder
Patricia Janis Broder pays tribute to American Indian women painters in her latest book, Earth Songs, Moon Dreams. The first book devoted entirely to paintings by Native American women, it features works by more than 40 artists from across the United States and Canada. As opposed to their male counterparts, whose paintings typically depict hunting and dance scenes, Native American women often focus on individuals and intimate details of daily life, such as chores and rites of passage. This interest in painting individuals led to the first examples of portraiture in Native American art. Artists profiled range from early 20th-century pioneers such as Lois Smoky to contemporary painters such as Emmi Whitehorse and Jaune Quick-to-See Smith.
1999 Thomas Dunne Books, New York, NY, 320 pages, 120 color photographs, $60 hardbound (ISBN 0-312-20534-1)
Indian Basketmakers of the Southwest
By Larry Dalrymple
Foreword by Susan Brown McGreevy
An avid collector of Native American baskets, Larry Dalrymple has spent nearly two decades meeting contemporary basketmakers and researching their craft. The result is Indian Basetmakers of the Southwest and its companion volume, Indian Basketmakers of California and the Great Basin, which present works by members of every tribe in the West still producing baskets. Although the tradition thrives in some communities, such as the Tohono O’odham, only a handful of weavers remain in others, such as the Santa Clara Pueblo. Through color and black-and-white photographs, Dalrymple profiles the weavers, details the history of each tribe’s techniques, and discusses current trends in basket design.
2000 Museum of New Mexico Press, Santa Fe, NM, 140 pages, 96 halftones, 54 color illustrations, 15 line drawings, $29.95 softbound (ISBN 0-89013-338-7)
Rain: Native Expressions From the American Southwest
By Ann Marshall
“Rain is life,” says San Ildefonso tribe member Gary Roybal. In the arid regions of the Southwest, Native American tribes celebrate the life-giving and life-sustaining powers of rain in their art and ceremonies. Featuring artifacts drawn from the Heard Museum’s collection of Native American art, Rain: Native Expressions of the Southwest explores the history of the relationship between rain and members of the Hopi, Zuni, Rio Grande Pueblos, Tohono O’odham, Indé, and Diné tribes. Illustrated throughout with color photographs of paintings, pottery, textiles, and more, the book also features literary excerpts and an illustrated guide to common rain symbols in Native American art.
2000 Museum of New Mexico Press, Santa Fe, NM, in association with the Heard Museum, 144 pages, 160 color illustrations, $32.50 softbound (ISBN 0-89013-344-1)
Featured in October 2000