american art after the 1300's, mostly before the spanish conquest i think

1. Art of the Americas after 1300 By Nisha George,Devon Rush, Taylor Martin, and Abby McCarty

9. The Inca Empire : · One of the largest states in the world at the beginning of the 16th century · Stretched across modern day Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia, and Chile · It was called the Land of Four Quarters · Inca Empire began to rapidly expand in the 15th century through conquest, alliance, and intimidation. · Had a hierarchical bureaucracy and various forms of labor taxation · Agriculture was divided into 3 cateragories: those for the god, the ruler and state, and the local population. · To move their armies and speed up transport and communication, 23,000 miles of roads were built. · The Inca kept detailed accounts on knotted and colored cords.

10. Inca Masonry : · Using heavy stone hammers, Incan builders created durable stone structures. · Commoners’ houses and some walls were made of irregular stones that were carefully put together. · Certain domestic and religious structures were erected using squared off, smooth surfaced stones laid in even rows. · The blocks might have been beveled, cut at an angle, or smoothed into a continuous flowing surface. · Inca structures had gabled, thatched roofs. · Doors, windows, and niches were trapezoid shaped.

11. Walls of the Temple of the Sun: · made of rectangular blocks · bocks are smoothed into a continuous flowing surface

12. Machu Picchu, Peru: · One of the most spectacular archaeological sites in the world. · The stone buildings located there today, occupy terraces around central plazas, and narrow agricultural terraces descend into the valley. · Its temples and carved sacred stones suggest that it had an important religious function.

13. Incan Textiles: · The production of fine textiles is of ancient origin in the Andes. · Textiles were one of the primary forms of wealth. · One kind of labor taxation was the required manufacture of fibers and cloth. · Cloth was deemed a fitting offering for the gods.

14. Tunic: (23-8) · Each square in the tunic shown represents a miniature tunic, but the meaning of the individual patterns is not yet completely understood. · The 4-part motifs may refer to the land of the Four Quarters. · The checker board pattern designated military officers and royal escorts.

15. The Fall of the Inca Empire: · The Spanish, who conquered the Inca in 1532, were far more interested in the Inca’s vast quantities of gold and silver than in cloth. · They melted down whatever gold and silver objects they found. · The Inca valued gold and silver because they saw in them symbols of the sun and moon.

16. Llama: (23-9) · This object escaped the conquerors’ treasure hunt. · This was buried as an offering. · Found near Lake Titicaca · Thought to have a special connection with the sun, rain, and fertility · Dressed in a red tunic and gold jewelry, this llama passed through the streets during April celebrations.

17. Eastern Woodlands: · When the original settlers of this area were gone, new groups began moving into the Eastern Woodlands. · These people supported themselves by a combination of hunting and agriculture. · They lived in villages and cultivated corn, squash, and beans. · When the Europeans arrived, the Eastern Woodlands people traded with the European settlers. They exchanged furs for metal kettles, needles, cloth, and beads. · Woodland people made wampum, belts and strings of cylindrical purple and white shell beads. Wampum was used to keep records and exchanged to conclude treaties.

18. Woodland Art: · Woodland art focused on personal adornment- tattoos, body paints, and elaborate dress and quillwork- the quills of porcupine and bird feathers are dyed and attached to materials in patterns. · Quill work and basketry were a woman’s art form. · Basketry is the weaving of reeds, grasses, and other materials to form containers. The three major techniques are: coiling, twining, and plaiting. · Beadwork became popular when the woodland artists began to acquire European colored glass. · Beadwork became incorporated into reintegration.

19. Baby Carrier: (23-10) · Richly decorated with symbols of protection and well-being, including bands of antelopes in profiles and thunderbirds with their heads turned and tails outspread.

20. Shoulder Bag: (23-11) · Exemplifies the evolution of beadwork design · In contrast to the rectilinear patterns of quillwork, this Delaware bag is covered with curvilinear plant motifs · White line outline brilliant pink and blue shaped forms

21. Great Plains · Over time, the woodland people were pushed westward by Europeans. They settled again in the Great Plains. · They developed a nomadic lifestyle. · A distinctive plains culture flourished from about 1700 to 1870. · A light portable building called a tepee was created. · By 1885, the plains people were outnumbered and out gunned by Euro-Americans.

22. Blackfoot Women raising a Tepee: (25-12) · Frame work of a teepee consisted of a stable frame of three or four long poles, in a roughly egg-shaped plan. · The framework was covered with waterproof animal hides. · Tepees were the property and responsibility of women. · Men recorded their exploits in symbolic and narrative form in paintings on tepee linings.

23. The Northwest Coast  the Pacific coast of North America is a region of unusually abundant resources  peoples of the Northwest Coast – the Tlingit, the Haida, and the Kwakwaka'wakw (or Kwakiutl)  social rank within and between related families was based on genealogical closeness to the mythic ancestor  a family derived its name and the right to use certain animals and spirits as totemic emblems, or crests, from its mythic ancestor  these emblems appeared prominently in Northwest Coast art, notably in carved house crests and the tall, freestanding poles erected to memorialize dead chiefs

24. 23-14 Grizzly bear house-partition screen , from the house of Chief Shakes of Wrangell, Canada, c. 1840. Cedar, native paint, and human hair, 15 x 8' – Denver Art Museum  the image of a rearing grizzly bear painted on the screen is itself made up of smaller bears and bear heads that appear in its ears, eyes, nostrils, joints, paws, and body  the images within the image enrich the monumental symmetrical design the oval door opening is a symbolic vagina; passing through it reenacts the birth of the family from its ancestral spirit

25. 23-15 Chilkat Blanket . Tlingit, before 1928. Mountain-goat wool and shredded cedar bark, 55 1/8” x 63 3/4” - American Museum of Natural History, New York  the weavers did not use looms; instead, they hung warp threads from a rod and twisted colored threads back and forth through them to make the pattern  The ends of the warp formed the fringe at the bottom of the blanket  the small face in the center of the blanket shown here represents the body of a stylized creature, perhaps a sea bear (a fur seal) or a standing eagle  on top of the body are the creature's large eyes; below it and to the sides are its legs and claws  characteristic of Northwest painting and weaving, the images are composed of two basic elements: the ovoid, a slightly bent rectangle with rounded corners, and the formline, a continuous, shape-defining line  here, subtly swelling black formlines define shapes with gentle curves, ovoids, and rectangular C shapes  when the blanket was worn, its two-dimensional forms would have become three-dimensional, with the dramatic central figure curving over the wearer's back and the intricate side panels crossing over his shoulders and chest - Chilkat men created the patterns, which they drew on boards, and women did the weaving  the blankets are made from shredded cedar bark wrapped with mountain-goat wool

26. 23-16 Edward S. Curtis. Hamatsa dancers, Kwakwaka'wakw, Canada  Many Native American cultures stage ritual dance ceremonies to call upon guardian spirits  the participants in Northwest Coast dance ceremonies wore elaborate costumes and striking carved wooden masks  among the most elaborate masks were those used by the Kwakwaka'wakw in their Winter Ceremony for initiating members into the shamanistic Hamatsa society  the dance reenacted the taming of Hamatsa, a people-eating spirit, and his three attendant bird spirits  magnificent carved and painted masks transformed the dancers into Hamatsa and the bird attendants, who searched for victims to eat  strings allowed the dancers to manipulate the masks so that the beaks opened and snapped shut with spectacular effect

27. Attributed to Willie Seaweed. Kwakwaka'wakw Bird Mask , from Alert Bay, Vancouver Island, Canada. Prior to 1952. Cedar wood, cedar bark, feathers, and fiber, 10 x 72 x 15” During this ceremony the masked bird dancers appear. Snapping their beaks, these masters of illusion enter the room backward, their masks pointed up as though the birds are looking skyward. They move slowly counter-clockwise around the floor. At each change in the music they crouch, snap their beaks, and let out their wild cries of Hap! Hap! Hap! Essential to the ritual dances are the huge carved and painted wooden masks, articulated and operated by strings worked by the dancers. Among the finest masks are those by Willie Seaweed, a Kwakwaka'wakw chief.

28. The Southwest  The Native American peoples of the southwest include the Pueblo (village-dwelling) groups and the Navajo  The Pueblo groups are heirs to the ancient Anasazi and Hohokam cultures, which developed a settled, agricultural way of life around 550 CE  The Navajo, who moved into the region about the 11 th century or later, developed a semisedentary way of life based on agriculture and, after the introduction of sheep by the Spanish, sheepherding  Both groups' arts reflect the adaptation of traditional forms to new technologies, new mediums, and the influences of the dominant American culture that surrounds them

29. The Pueblos

30. Taos Pueblo  This it located in north-central New Mexico  Taos once served as a trading center between Plains and Pueblo peoples  it burned in 1690 but was rebuilt about 1700 and has often been modified since  “ Great houses,” multifamily dwellings, stand on either side of Taos Creek, rising in a stepped fashion to form a series of roof terraces. The houses border a plaza that opens toward the neighboring mountains. The plaza and roof terraces are centers of communal life and ceremony

31. 23-19. Maria Montoya Martinez and Julian Martinez. Blackware storage jar , from Sam Ildefonso Pueblo, New Mexico. c. 1942. Ceramic. Height 18 3/4”  inspired by prehistoric blackware pottery that was unearthed at nearby archaeological excavations, she and Maria Montoya Martinez's husband, Julian Martinez, developed a distinctive new ware decorated with matte (nongloss) black forms on a lustrous black background  Maria made pots covered with a slip that was then burnished  using additional slip, Julian painted the pots with designs that combined traditional Pueblo imagery and the then fashionable Euro-American Art Deco style after firing, the burnished ground became a lustrous black and the slip painting retained a matte surface  pottery traditionally was a woman's art among Pueblo peoples, whose wares were made by coiling and other hand-building techniques, then fired at low temperature in wood bonfires

32. 23-20. Pablita Velarde. Koshares of Taos , from Santa Clara Pueblo, New Mexico. Watercolor on paper, 13 7/8 x 22 3/8” -- Velarde's painting combines bold, flat colors and a simplified decorative line with European perspective to produce a kind of Art Deco abstraction  Koshares of Taos illustrates a moment during a ceremony celebrating the winter solstice when koshares, or clowns, take over the plaza from the kachinas – the supernatural counterparts of animals, natural phenomena like clouds, and geological features like mountains – who are central to traditional Pueblo religion -- Kachinas become manifest in the human dancers who impersonate them during the winter solstice ceremony, as well as in the small figures known as kachina dolls that are given to children

34. -Sand paintings are made to the accompaniment of chants by shaman-singers in the course of healing and blessing ceremonies and have great sacred significance. -Paintings depict mythic heroes and events -To make them, the singer dribbles pulverized colored stones, pollen, flowers, and other natural colors over a hide or sand ground - The rituals are intended to restore harmony to the world and so to achieve cures -They are not meant for public display and are destroyed by nightfall of the day on which they are made *In 1919, a respected shaman-singer named Hosteen Klah began to incorporate sand-painting images into weavings, breaking with the traditional prohibition against making them permanent. -many Navajos took offense at Klah both for recording the sacred images and for doing so in a woman’s art form -Klah’s work was ultimately accepted because of his great skill and prestige The Navajos: Sand Paintings

35. - sand painting - depicts a part of the Navajo creation myth in which the Holy People divide the world into four parts and create the Earth Surface People (humans) -bring forth corn, beans, squash and tobacco, the four sacred plants -Holy People surround the image -A male-female pair of humans stands in each of the four quarters defined by the central cross -The guardian figure of Rainbow Maiden encloses the scene on three sides -The open side represents the east Whirling Log Ceremony Hosteen Klah 5’5” x 5’10” Navajo, c. 1925 E S W N

36. Contemporary Native American Artists