INTRODUCTION TO AMERICAN INDIAN ART (Two Volumes in One) [SOLD]

INTRODUCTION TO AMERICAN INDIAN ART to Accompany the First Exhibition of American Indian Art Selected Entirely with Consideration of Esthetic Value (Two Volumes in One)

By Oliver LaFarge

First Published by The Exposition of Indian Tribal Arts, Inc. 1931

Re-published by The Rio Grande Press, Inc., Glorieta, 1970

The original publication in 1931 was issued in two volumes with paper covers.  This 1970 re-published one combined the two volumes into one hardback book.  Illustrations is black and white. 219 pages

Volume I contains the overall Introduction to the Exhibit with 58 pages and 35 illustrations.  The Editorial Board was Frederick Webb Hodge, Dr. Herbert J. Spinden and Oliver LaFarge.

 Excerpt from Volume I Introduction:

Our museums have collected Indian manufactures with scientific intent, placing as it were, the choice vase and the homely cooking pot side by side.  Bound by the necessity of giving a whole picture they have not been able to set forth their many beautiful specimens in an advantageous manner.  The casual tourist who goes out to the Indian country likes to bring back some knickknack as a souvenir and proudly displays it as a "genuine Indian" article.  Unhappily, Americans know the art of this Indian chiefly through such cheap curios made for the gullible white man.

It is a far cry, indeed, from such miserable knickknacks to the watercolors of young Pueblo Indian artists, reproduced in this book.  To any sensitive person, it is obvious that on the basis of these alone, our "curio concept" of the American Indian must be revised.  The Indian artist deserves to be classed as a Modernist, his art is old, yet alive and dynamic; but his modernism is an expression of a continuing vigor seeking new outlets.

Volumes II contains over 150 pages of detailed individual chapters by different artists covering the entire exhibition.  Each article is profusely illustrated with photographs.

Article titles are as follows:

Fine Art and the First Americans by Herbert J. Spinden

Indian Symbolism by Herbert J. Spinden

Indian Poetry by Mary Austin

Modern Indian Painting by Alice Corbin Henderson

Sand-Painting of the Navaho Indians by Laura Adams Armer

Indian Pottery by Kenneth M. Chapman

Indian Sculpture and Carving by Neil M. Judd

Indian Masks by Charles C. Willoughby

Indian Basketry by E. W. Gifford

Indian Weaving by Mary Lois Kissell

Indian Porcupine-Quill and Beadwork by William C. Orchard

Books on Indian Arts North of Mexico compiled by Ruth Gaines

Condition: as if new.