Art of the Ancestors: Antique North American Indian Art

George Everett Shaw
Steven C. Brown , With
Benson L. Lanford , With
Bill Mercer , With

From the author of the award-winning Art of Grace and Passion comes this spotlight on North American artisanship between 200 BC and the early 1900s. The masterworks featured here range from clothing, accessories, and ceremonial and hunting gear to blankets, cradles, storage vessels, and utensils. Each was crafted of such diverse materials as quills, ivory, hide, wood, fibers, stone, clay, and even glass beads imported by European traders.

George Everett Shaw, Steven C. Brown, Benson L. Lanford, and Bill Mercer examine how American Indians' existence developed around the challenges and benefits of the climate, terrain, flora, and fauna of their locales. Their art objects embody the spiritual devotion--inseparable from their relationship with the natural world--that even now shapes their lives. Whether decorated with abstract patterns or with representations of humans and animals, such pieces were vehicles for passing down beliefs and customs before written languages existed. Thus we can appreciate them not only for their beauty and the skill and ingenuity of their makers but also in the context of the cultures from which they sprang.

Winner of the Frances Smyth-Ravenel Prize for Excellence in Publication Design from the American Association of Museums.

"The art-book quality along with the exceptional color photos and the informative introductory essays make this an especially attractive and useful introduction or reference for Native American art and cultural objects."--The Midwest Book Review

"[Shaw] has gathered the best representations of Native pottery, blankets, clothing, accessories, ceremonial and hunting gear, cradles, and more in a lavishly illustrated volume called Art of the Ancestors."--Southwest Art

George Everett Shaw, a dealer in antique Indian art and an exhibition curator, assembled the objects, most never before appearing in a published volume.

Steven C. Brown (Northwest Coast and Alaska), a noted carver of Indian art, was formerly an associate curator at the Seattle Art Museum.

Benson L. Lanford (Plains and Woodlands) is a consultant to Christie's and a contributor to American Indian Arts magazine.

Bill Mercer (Southwest and California) is curator of Native American art at the Portland Art Museum.

Aspen Art Museum

11.75 x 13 180 pages 100 color photographs