Modern Native Abstraction
Geometric #4 (triptych), Harvey Herman (Sioux), oil, 1971 | Photos taken by Abril Warner at SLAM.
It could be said that Native American Art has always included abstract art. The Eurocentric art historical classifications can rarely encompass the art worlds beyond their backyard. This is not to say that European cultural heritage is lesser, rather, that art beyond European reaches is also of equal merit and deserves consideration. Human cultural heritage exists all over. So, back to the original point, Native American artists have practiced art-making which has always included an aspect of nonfigurative imagery.
On the surface, these “decorative” works can seem to belie a deeper symbolic truth or a connection to the unseen. We lack a common language system to fully explain our many human experiences beyond the physical and empirical world. These experiences can include the sublime, the connection to the divine or the sensation of the wind in the changing seasons. The complex human experience can overwhelm our senses and can outreach the scope of our known language. This is worth exploring in art.
In the summer 2023, the Saint Louis Art Museum hosted an exhibition organized by the Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA) Museum of Contemporary Native Arts, Santa Fe, New Mexico called, Action/Abstraction Redefined. When the IAIA started this work, New York Abstract Expressionism was on its course to meteoric rise. Artists like Pollock and De Kooning were working towards pure abstraction while artists like Noguchi and Gorky had already taken several dives into nonfigurative work. This 1940s IAIA initiative to explore American Indian art practices and cultural perspectives while considering global art history, garnered more recognition for native artists and aesthetics, support for their careers and art-making, and, thankfully, so much artwork.[1]
The following images are from the 2023 Action/Abstraction Redefined exhibition hosted by SLAM.
Edwin C Hill, Mary Sully (Sioux), colored pencil and ink, after 1938
Untitled, Joe Hilario Herrera (Cochiti Pueblo), oil on canvas board, 1951
White Painting No. 1, George Morrison (Ojibwe), oil, 1965
Untitled (Squares), Lloyd Henri “Kiva” New (Cherokee), acrylic on canvas with wood, 1968
Indian Beadwork, Lloyd Henri “Kiva” New (Cherokee), oil and metal studs on canvas, 1979
Untitled (Abstract Figures), Manuelita Lovato (Santo Domingo Pueblo), clay, 1964
Untitled, Anita Fields (Creek)), woodblock, 1972-77
Crow Parfleche, Redstar Price (Crow), acrylic, 1967
Forms in Beadwork, Earl Eder (Sioux), oil, 1963
