ATADA News, Summer, 2005
From the President
As we draw closer to our annual event in Santa Fe, I think it is a good time to reflect and continue the dialogue of all the pros and cons of our business. One thing we can all agree on is that there is a great deal of work involved in running your own business, especially one that requires constant research in order to guarantee our products and,that requires keeping up from day to day with legal concerns that actively affect what we can and cannot do. The end result of all this is that in some ways, we become one body with a single purpose. That fact requires us to respect and promote one another.
This may sound crazy in light of the reality of competition, but I have always believed that the health of our business requires just that. Along those lines, and this is just one small part of the issue, I would urge everyone to be very cautious about making blanket statements about objects either at auction or in someone else's booth. I have seen some wonderful authentic pieces killed because someone thinks he knows more than anyone else on the subject. I realize there will always be talk and everyone is entitled to his or her opinion. Let's just think long and hard and be darn sure before we give it. We owe it to one another and to the objects themselves .
I hope everyone is aware of Senate Bill 536 that was introduced by Senator John McCain. The Senate Committee on Indian Affairs is due to review this bill sometime this summer. Section 108 of the bill would amend the definition of Native American in the NAGPRA law and overrule the Kennewick Man decision. This is something we need to stay on top of. Please read the information in the bulletin and be prepared to write to your Senator in the upcoming weeks. More information will follow.
Special thanks to Rich Edwards for the time and energy he provides us all in the above matters and many more.
RECRUIT NEW MEMBERS!
Merrill Domas
EDITOR'S NOTEBOOK
The list of Directory Updates is longer than usual in this issue because of the hard work of webmaster Arch Thiessen, who took days comparing members' listings on the web and in the Directory, and making them agree, when possible. It was a tremendous job, and thank you Arch for taking it on and accomplishing your goal.Thanks too to Chad Tanner, who has incorporated the changes into next year's Directory listings.
Not only do we hope to see most of you at the 2005 ATADA fundraiser on Saturday night, August 13, we hope you will bring a client or two.
Thanks to Roger Fry and Len Weakley, we'll be eating New Mexican food and listening to live music on their pano-view terrace at La Fonda again this year. See you there!
Alice Kaufman
ATADA Foundation News
After a request from Bob Bauver, the board voted to give the Maxwell Museum on the University of New Mexico campus $1,000 towards helping to fund a show dealing with Native American apparel. It will be the first show of its type at the museum to exhibit material from private collections, including ATADA members, and was guest curated by Terry Schurmeier and Jan Duggan.
To quote Bob's appeal to the board:
"This would be a great gesture towards mutual understanding in the area of collecting if we were to donate $1000 to help with the show's expenses. In the past, the museum has chosen to remain separate from our organization as some of our members deal in prehistoric material.
"My feeling is that this is a bridge that definitely .needs to be crossed in an effort to work more closely with museums. Most people are unaware of this fine museum and the resulting write-up in our Newsletter would be mutually beneficial."
E-Mail from ATADA Webmaster Arch Thiessen
RECOVERY ALERT: Pottery stolen from Indio, California, recovered with help from ATADA Web Site.
STOLEN NATIVE AMERICAN ARTIFACTS: Many of you will remember the announcement of items taken during an early morning burglary on January 11, 2005, of the cultural museum at the Cabazon Band of Mission Indians located in Indio, California.
I received a phone call this morning from Detective Joe Stuart, who was delighted to share the news that 14 of 17 stolen items were recovered. The ATADA theft.html page was directly involved. An alert collector saw the stolen items, went home and checked the ATADA site and called the police at the number given there. Within minutes, the items were recovered.
The lesson is clear: if there are items on the ATADA theft alert page, they are very difficult to sell, and must be kept out of sight, even in a home collection. Let the buyer beware!
Photos of the (recovered) stolen pottery can be found at http://www.atada.org/theft.html#Cabazon.
Please share this information with collectors and dealers who may be interested. Be sure to inform them that detailed photos are essential to improve chances for recovery of stolen items. Arch Thiessen, ATADA Webmaster
Black Lighting Navajo Rugs and Blankets
Sara and Joe Alexanian's advice
Restoration of a Navajo rug or blanket can be hard to locate when it is done well. With ATADA's focus on providing a guarantee that includes this information, you may find using a black light to be as important a tool for looking at Navajo weaving as it has come to be when examining pottery.
As with ceramic restoration, most reweaving is more visible under the black light, due to a difference in dye stuff and fleece. The yams used for the restoration will be much more vivid than the original material. The only possible exception can be indigo-dyed yarns. With indigo-dyed yarns, the difference under the black light may be slight to none.
The black light is also an indispensable tool for locating areas of color enhancement, i.e. those areas of original yarns that have lost or changed color for a variety of reasons. Fabric paints, markers and other color enhancing agents reveal themselves as very dull areas and give the viewer a point of reference to return to with a dampened white towel. Gently run the towel over the area to see what it may show you. As a rule, these agents are quite water soluble and can leave some of the color enhancer on the towel.
Full disclosure of restoration information should not been seen in a negative light. Steps taken to preserve rugs and blankets can be a source of pride for a dealer, generally resulting in more beautiful, valuable inventory.
From Rich Edwards' E-mail
Dear All,
This message is to bring you up to date (on the proposed NAGPRA amendment) from the message of April 22 below.
This afternoon (Wednesday, May 4) I spoke with Patrick McMullen, who is the staff assistant to Senator John McCain on matters relating to the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs. I mentioned Tuesday, May 10. He said he did not know the specific day but he expected the Committee's report on S.536 to go to the full Senate sometime early in the week of May 9-13. The bill (S.536) will be reported as originally introduced in March (with the bad Sec. 108 that would amend the definition of "Native American" in NAGPRA). Mr. McMullen assured me that Senator McCain will delete the section on the definition of "Native American" in NAGPRA on the floor of the Senate, and will then move that S.536 with that deletion by approved by unanimous consent.
I asked if there was anything I or others should do to assure the above scenario is followed. He said he was as sure as he could be. He said that hearings will then be held on the definition of "Native American" in NAGPRA. He was confident that it would be at least two months before hearings are held. He said the hearings would be announced in advance on the website of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs.
It seems to me that ATADA, Friends of America's Past, and other organizations should write Senator McCain the week after next indicating clearly that they wish to testify at the forthcoming hearings and in those letters request to be notified of the hearings as far in advance as possible (as persons who testify for the organizations might not other wise be in Washington). Copies of those letters should be sent to other senators on the Committee who might be sympathetic to us.
I will try to monitor what happens to S.536 on the floor of the Senate this coming week.
Rich Edwards
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Friday, April 22, 2005 10:54 PM Subject: 5.536 and NAGPRA
Dear All,
Friday afternoon, April 22, I received a telephone call from Mike Hill, Legislative Assistant to Senator Craig Thomas of Wyoming who serves on the Senate Indian Affairs Committee. He said that the NAGPRA amendment was deleted from the proposed Native American Omnibus Act of 2005. He said that the communications that several senators had received (for which you helped out) made the difference. He said not to underestimate the effect of thoughtful letters sent to a senator. You may recall that the section deleted would have added the words "or was" in the definition of :'Native American" to overrule the Kennewick Man decision for any future litigation.
I asked Mr. Hill, whom Alice and I met at the end of last month when in Washington, whether there would be hearings on the proposed amendment to NAGPRA or whether the matter was dead (at least for now). He could not say, so we shall continue to have to be vigilant.
I will call the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs on Monday, April 25, to confirm that the NAGPRA amendment has in fact been deleted from the bill. Assuming that is the case, I would suggest that everyone who previously contacted their senators do so again to thank them for the action.
I shall let you know what further I learn.
Rich Edwards
Kennewick Man Updates
June 20, 2005
Scientists are poised to begin studying the ancient bones early next month. The story, "Kennewick Man to be studied in Seattle," has been posted to http://www. kennewick-man.com.
Additionally, there is a feature on sculptor Tom McClelland, who is making bronzes of the Kennewick Man facial recreation he crafted more than seven years ago. The story, "Kennewick Man or bust," has been posted to http://www.kennewickman.com .
Book Review
Steve Elmore reviews "The Pottery of Santa Ana Pueblo" by Frank Harlow, Dwight Lanmon, and Duane Anderson (Museum of New Mexico Press, 2005)
Combining their many talents, Frank Harlow, Dwight Lanmon, and Duane Anderson have done it again. Following their excellent books on Zia pottery and Tesuque rain gods, "The Pottery of Santa Ana Pueblo" is another significant scholarly and pictorial work, obviously the result of decades of technical research on Harlow's part and much excellent legwork and contemporary research from his teammates. Throughout the text there are nuggets of specific information of interest to all of us pottery connoisseurs, and the book actually delivers more information on early Pueblo pottery than on just the pottery of Santa Ana. In setting the stage for a thorough discussion of Santa Ana pottery, the authors present several chapters of rich background information on Rio Grande pottery from 1500 to 1800, including the effect of the Pueblo Revolt on pottery making, the change from glaze painted to matte painted pottery, and the evolution of form and design throughout the Rio Grande area. For example, the switch from glaze to matte paint is credited to the Spanish controlling the few sources of the lead oxide glaze material. The migrations caused by the Pueblo Revolt resulted in a mixing of ceramic traditions and the hastening of stylistic evolution. The technical analysis of tempers, paints, slips, and rim forms will certainly be helpful to unraveling many mysteries of the origin of pottery from this period.While the text is formal and technical, the profuse photographs and illustrations, many by Harlow himself, hold the book together, to make it enjoyable for both the serious scholar and for those who prefer to use the photos as eye candy. Wonderful examples of Santa Ana pottery from many different museums are featured, illustrations are presented of recomposing pottery fragments into complete pieces again, and design elements themselves are presented in small illustrated clips for easy reference. No effort has been spared to present the best information and photos of the best examples of Santa Ana pottery over the last five centuries.
As it turns out, Santa Ana and Zia pottery are not distinguishable until around 1760; until then both are grouped together under the term "Puname." After that date, crushed river sand is substituted as a temper at Santa Ana rather than black basalt as at Zia. Perhaps the fine river sand was readily available at the new village, Ranchitos, along the Rio Grande, where the Santa Anans moved at that time. Santa Ana pottery essentially splits off from Zia pottery and develops its own design palette. The analysis of form and design for dating is detailed and convincing, although no attempt is made to interpret any of the symbols used, and there are no known ceremonial pieces available. A thorough technical presentation of Santa Ana pottery is made up to the present time, although historic production ended around 1910. The several revivals since then have been modest. Fortunately, the authors have researched potters' names back into the late 19th century and document the potters involved in the revivals and their work.
Beyond noting that I would prefer measurements given in inches rather than metrics, it is difficult to criticize such a thorough presentation. But however delighted the reader may be with the many wonderful photos and illustrations, the actual technical analysis of slips, minerals, paints becomes tedious and repetitive, and the lack of direct cultural connection with the Pueblo potters and Pueblo people is frustrating to a reader who is interested in how pottery making is integral to these cultures as art. It would be more intriguing if the authors gave us some insight into the designs: what do they refer to? What is their origin? Are, they connected to the religion? If these ceramic objects are art, what are they telling us about the culture and the people?
Given that there is little historical information available on Santa Ana, and the reluctance of pueblo people to discuss their lives and ceremonies with outsiders, the authors have made a substantial contribution to our understanding of Pueblo pottery and I look forward to their additional efforts. Personally, it makes me a little sad that so few pieces of Santa Ana pottery are available for collectors to enjoy. This fine publication at least lets us feast our eyes on the ceramic gems produced at Santa Ana over the last 600 years, and it will take some time to digest all of the information presented herein. Thanks!
And, a big hand of thanks to MIAC, Santa Fe's fine Museum of Indian Arts and Culture, for its presentation of a solid show on Santa Ana Pueblo Pottery which will be running through the spring of 2006. MIAC has changed many of its exhibits in the last year or so and is well worth an afternoon's perusal.
Steve Elmore
Book News
"North American Burl Treen: Colonial & Native American" (208 pages, hardcover), the first comprehensive survey and study of this historical craft, is now available from the author. Culled from museum and private collections, the book includes nearly 200 objects and over 250 full-color images, most never before published.
For more information, access www.burlsnuff.com or S. Scott Powers Antiques, 360 Court Street #28, Brooklyn, NY 11231.
....
The fourth edition of "The Navajo Weaving Tradition" by ATADA members Alice Kaufman and Christopher Selser has just been published by Council Oak Press. To order, call the publisher at (800) 247-8850.
FAKE NAVAJO RUG ALERT
Recently, we and some other experienced dealers have been shown textiles done in a Navajo style and pattern, supposedly from the 1875 -1940 time period. These textiles can pass as Navajo in a photograph or from a distance, and in many cases even contain lazy lines, but upon closer inspection there are technical elements that identify them as being neither Navajo nor antique.
Many of the weavings that have come on the market recently have been copied from books, with pieces from the William Randolph Hearst collection and from Navajo Pictorial Weaving 1880 -1950, the book by Campbell and Kopp, being particularly well represented. They are usually copied with very small differences but the major details are the same as in the published images. Many have originally surfaced on internet auction sites before passing into the antique American Indian art mainstream through people who, in many cases, are unaware of the problem.
Navajo-style weavings done by other cultural groups are not a new phenomenon, but the recent introduction of textiles from Eastern Europe and other overseas areas has been troubling. Some of these pieces, such as the Teec Nos Pos style weavings sold in some retail outlets in the Southwest, are marketed as non-Indian and are perfectly acceptable as derivative contemporary rugs. The copies we have seen recently, however, are being sold as genuine antique Navajo pieces, sometimes by people who do not know any better.
Without exception, the wool used in these weavings is a very hard and scratchy type that has none of the smoothness of typical Navajo wools but is more suggestive of a Kilim type. There are other more technical aspects that are inconsistent with older Navajo weavings, and we would be happy to discuss these differences with ATADA members.
If these forgeries enter the mainstream market under the guise of genuine antique Navajo textiles, a great deal of harm will be done to a robust and vibrant market and to the textile dealers who market the real antique pieces.
We ask that all of our fellow dealers keep an eye out for these non-Navajo weavings and try to make sure they are sold as what they truly are. These forgeries are virtually impossible to discern from a photo or online image. Always obtain a written guarantee of authenticity on every purchase or have them inspected by a knowledgeable expert PRIOR to purchase. The Department of the Interior or the FBI are probably the appropriate government agencies to contact in regard to any perceived improprieties in regard to the authenticity of any article represented as being of Native American manufacture.
Steve Begner, Turkey Mountain Traders
Tyrone Campbell, Tyrone D. Campbell, Inc.
Mark Winter, Historic Toadlena Trading Post
Media Files
Excerpts from recent newspaper, magazine and Internet articles of interest to the Membership. All opinions are those of the writers of the stories and of the people quoted, not of ATADA. Members are encouraged to submit press clippings or e-mail links for publication in the next Newsletter.
Margarit Fox's April 22 obituary of James A. Houston, calls Houston "a writer and artist almost single-handedly responsible for introducing contemporary Eskimo art to an international audience."
Houston died in New London, Conn., "was 83 and lived in Stonington, Conn. The cause was complications of a heart attack, his wife, Alice, said.
"A Canadian who lived in the United States since the early 1960s, Mr. Houston spent more than a decade among the Inuit of Canada's eastern Arctic in the years after World War II. There, he introduced local people to printmaking, helped them establish a profitable crafts cooperative to sell their prints and sculpture, and brought their work, then virtually unknown to outsiders, to the attention of museums and collectors worldwide.
"As an artist, Mr. Houston was known for his prints depicting Arctic subjects, and was for many years a leading designer for Steuben Glass. He was also known for his novel 'The White Dawn' (Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1971) and for illustrated children's books and several memoirs.
"Reviewing Mr. Houston's memoir 'Confessions of an Igloo Dweller' (Houghton Mifflin) in The New York Times Book Review in 1996, Stuart McLean singled out for praise an attribute that is almost certainly unique in English letters. 'Where else,' he wrote, 'might you learn how to capture a wolverine with a piece of Kleenex?'
"Based in the village of Cape Dorset on West Baffin Island, Mr. Houston slept in igloos; traveled between remote settlements by dogsled; ate seal meat and caribou, both raw; climbed frozen waterfalls 40 feet high; joined in seal hunts; listened to traditional stories told round the fire; and swatted battalions of mosquitoes.
"He also survived falls into freezing water, getting lost in a snowstorm and being stranded on the ice for five days after the small plane in which he was traveling was forced to land in the middle of nowhere.
"James Archibald Houston was born in Toronto on June 12, 1921. His father, a clothing importer, often went into the Canadian wilderness to trade with Indians and Eskimos, regaling the family with stories of his travels. James, who began drawing as a boy, studied art in Toronto and in Paris, and during World War II served in the Canadian Army.
"In 1948, disenchanted with city life and seeking something satisfying to draw, Mr. Houston hitched a ride on a Single-engine plane to an Inuit village in Arctic Quebec. As he told The New Yorker in 1988, 'I saw rocks, the autumn tundra, long skeins of ice drifting south to melt in Hudson Bay, and I knew this was the place I'd been looking for.'
"Armed with only a sleeping bag, a toothbrush, sketchbooks and one can of peaches, Mr Houston planned to stay several days. With occasional interruptions, he stayed 14 years.
"Although archaeologists knew about the voluptuous soapstone sculptures carved by ancient Eskimos, no one knew that the modern Inuit continued to make similar pieces. Carefully wrapped and packed away for safekeeping, the contemporary sculptures were rarely displayed in Inuit homes.
"In his first days in Cape Dorset, Mr. Houston sketched local people, often giving them the drawings. (They called him Saomik, the Left-Handed One.) One day, a villager presented him with a tiny, exquisite carving of a caribou in exchange. It so delighted Mr. Houston that he opened the canned peaches and passed them round the igloo.
"He assumed the carving was ancient, but when he learned it had been made recently, Mr. Houston realized that art could provide an income for the Inuit, who had suffered with the decline of the fur trade. He began marketing their sculpture, and in 1949 organized the first major exhibition of Inuit work, in Montreal.
"Mr. Houston, who began teaching printmaking in the Arctic in the late 1950s, also organized the West Baffin Eskimo CoOperative, through which the Inuit sold their work. Today, trade in Inuit art runs to more than $10 million annually.
"In the mid-1950s, Mr. Houston became the first civil administrator of West Baffin Island. He left the post in 1962 to work for Steuben, for which he produced designs until his death. Among the best known is , Arctic Fisherman,' a sculpture of an Eskimo kneeling to spear a fish suspended in an icy block of glass. Mr. Houston's work was the subject of a major retrospective at Steuben in 2002.
"Mr. Houston's first marriage, to the former Alma Bardon, ended in divorce. He is survived by his wife, the former Alice Watson; a sister, Barbara Houston Parker of Palm Harbor, Fla.; two sons from his first marriage, John, of Halifax, Nova Scotia, and Sam, of Aspen, Colo.; and four grandchildren.
"(To trap a wolverine, saturate a Kleenex with a certain redolent perfume, available in the Arctic in the 1950s. Wolverines find it irresistible.)"
Richard West, director of the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of the American Indian, speaks of his conflicting views of the work of George Caitlin, and Grace Glueck gives an overview of his career in "Witness to a Dying Way of Tribal Life," Glueck's April 22 New York Times review of "George Catlin and His Indian Gallery," organized by the Smithsonian and now at the New York branch of the museum, the George Gustav Heye Center.
Glueck writes: "George Catlin (17961872) may not have been the most refined of painterly talents. But he had a mission. And that was to record American Indian life and culture before it was obliterated by the country's territorial expansion.
"In five trips during the 1830s, this ambitious artist-showman visited 50 tribes living west of the Mississippi River, from present-day North Dakota to Oklahoma. He made more than 500 paintings of the Plains Indians, the first to record them in their own environment.
"He wanted, he wrote, 'by the aid of my brush and my pen, to rescue from oblivion so much of their primitive looks and customs as the industry and ardent enthusiasm of one lifetime could accomplish, and set them up in a gallery unique and imperishable for the use of future ages.'
"The purity of Catlin's motives, however, has always been challenged, in light of his ambitions to further his career with an attention-getting project and his later exploitation of Indians in the Wild West extravaganzas he staged abroad.
" 'Catlin can be seen today as a cultural P. T. Barnum, a crass huckster trading on other people's lives and life ways,' writes W. Richard West, director of the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of the American Indian.
"MR West, a Southern Cheyenne and member of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes of Oklahoma, makes his remarks in the catalog for the current show, 'George Catlin and His Indian Gallery,' organized by the Smithsonian and now at the New York branch of the museum, the George Gustav Heye Center.
" 'A native person is challenged, I think, not to feel on some level a profound resentment toward Catlin; his obsession with depicting Indians has an extremely invasive undertone to it,' Mr. West says.
"Still, he acknowledges the artist's 'impressive output,' noting that 'he placed great value on Indians and their cultures, revealing genuine concern at how they were being systematically stressed and destroyed by non-Indians.'
"Despite the negative feelings Catlin has aroused, his project was an amazing feat. The more than 100 portraits, landscapes and scenes of tribal life selected for display give an account of Plains Indians life in wonderful and sometimes harrowing detail.
"There are masterly portraits of Indian braves in full regalia, like the tender and beautiful study of Osceola (the Black Drink), the distinguished Seminole chief who led his tribe in its war against the government's Indian Removal Act of 1830; and the handsome Hee-oh'ks-te-kin (Rabbit's Skin Leggings), a regal-looking Nez Perce tribesman in an embroidered buckskin shirt.
"And there are sad portraits, like that of the blind, alcoholic Shin-gos-se-moon (Big Sail), a chief of the Ottawa tribe introduced to whiskey, Catlin said, by the "white man's cupidity."
"Catlin painted not only peaceful tribal scenes like the Dog Feast staged by Western Sioux at their encampment near Fort Pierre, in which dog meat was offered to placate offended spirits (Catlin said it didn't come up to buffalo or venison), but also a grisly series depicting the O-kee-pa ceremony of the Mandans. This was an excruciating initiation rite in which promising young warriors, weighed down by buffalo skulls, weapons and medicine bags, were suspended from the roof of the medicine lodge by cords anchored in their chests and shoulder muscles until they tore free or lost consciousness.
" (Few if any Mandans lived to substantiate or refute the sometimes disputed truth of these paintings; after Catlin made them, the tribe was all but wiped out by a smallpox epidemic in 1837.)
"Buffalo, essential to Indian sustenance, also figure in the Catlin iconograpny. In one scene Catlin depicts the dying agony of a buffalo, shot with an arrow and streaming blood. In another he depicts Indians disguised in wolf skins creeping up on buffalo herds. The beasts, used to wolves removing the carcasses of their dead calves, paid no attention and were easily shot down at close range. "Not least in this show are a number of fine landscapes, in which Catlin made the most of unexciting Plains scenery. One example is 'River Bluffs, 1,320 Miles above St. Louis,' a long, wide-angle view of hills and the tiny islands of the upper Missouri, a view shaped by Indians setting fires to curb excessive tree growth.
"Why did Catlin, born in Wilkes Barre, Pa., and trained as a lawyer, fixate on Indians? It's a complicated story. Beguiled by art, he gave up law for the study of miniature painting and then, wanting to work on a more noticeable scale, moved to New York.
"But it is said that he found his portrait work dull and anticipated more kudos as a historical painter. Purpose struck him on a visit to Philadelphia, when he saw a visiting delegation of Western Indians in all their tribal finery.
"He would paint the Western Indians, as yet unsullied by white civilization, he decided, and attract the support of the government and other interested parties by documenting 'a truly lofty and noble race.' And at the same time he would forge for himself a commercial success.
"With his wife and young family, he moved to St. Louis. There he met William Clark, of Lewis and Clark expedition fame, now superintendent of Indian affairs in the West. In 1830 and '31 Catlin accompanied Clark on trips to treaty signings with various tribes and thus began, he said, his Indian project.
"But it was not until the next year that he 'penetrated the vast and pathless wilds' of the far West, boarding the steamboat Yellowstone for an 1,800-mile ride up the Missouri River to Fort Union, in the depth of Indian country. This trip marked the real beginning of his Indian Gallery, he later wrote.
"During the three-month voyage he worked at a punishing pace, painting Sioux, Assiniboine, Blackfeet, Crow and other tribes, most notably the Mandans. During his 86-day stay on the upper Mississippi, we learn from the beautifully produced catalog, he painted more than 135 pictures, mainly portraits but also landscapes, views of Indian life and hunting scenes.
"It's important to note that Catlin made no claim to artistry in his picture-making, and certainly his work is open to criticism on several grounds, anatomical correctness among them. But he regarded it as documentary in nature, made with necessary speed to capture what he considered a rapidly deposed and dying Indian culture.
" After his last painting stint, in 1836, done at a treaty council on the Mississippi, Catlin turned his full attention to his Indian Gallery (with a detour to paint the dying Osceola in 1838). He first offered it for sale to the United States government in 1838 and periodically thereafter.
"Long before that, to raise money, Catlin gave lectures and held exhibitions in the United States. Then in 1839 he took himself, his pictures and many Indian artifacts to Europe, where he staged what would become a long-running, Buffalo Bill-style vaudeville show in Britain and France, using Indians as well as his own family members.
"At first a success, the show eventually bankrupted Catlin; even after selling many of the pictures from his original gallery (he later copied and reconstituted them), he was sent to debtors' prison. But eventually he remade his life and his work, and in 1871 he returned to America, where the Smithsonian gave him a studio to work in. He died shortly thereafter.
"It was not until 1879 that his collection went to the Smithsonian, thanks to a Pennsylvania widow, Sarah Harrison. She donated it after the death of her husband, who had purchased it by paying Catlin's debts. And so we can view it virtually intact. You will find it a remarkable experience."
Carol Vogel's Inside Art column in The New York limes on April 22 featured this storyette on the Kimbell Museum's "Mayan Treasure."
"The Kimbell Art Museum's recent purchase of three major works of Maya art may signal an important addition to its pre Columbian holdings, but the acquisitions were not part of a plan.
" 'It was a coincidence,' said Timothy Potts, the Kimbell's director. When curators there spotted the works at different auctions, the museum simply decided they were too rare not to try to buy.
"By far the most important is an early-Classic-period royal jade belt ornament decorated with the image of a ruler and inscribed with glyphic text. 'It is a masterpiece,' Mr. Potts said. 'There are only three known in existence.' Worn as the official royal regalia and dating from the fifth century A.D., it shows a full-length profile portrait of a Maya ruler on one side, with two columns of text on the other explaining the scene. The museum bought the jade belt at Christie's last fall for $1.5 million, a record for pre-Columbian art at auction.
"The Kimbell also bought two late Classic vessels. One is intricately painted with two scenes of the deity Pawahtun, one of the Maya gods of writing and art, addressing two young disciples. The other has a mythological frieze showing two renderings of Itzamna, the god of heaven and sun for the Yucatec Maya. 'It's important for its iconography,' Mr. Potts added."
Two stories on the Museum of Northern Arizona's suit against Steve Diamant follow. The first, from the Arizona Republic on April 26, was written by Mark Shaffer of the paper's Flagstaff Bureau and had the headline, "Museum files suit vs. broker over proceeds from art sale."
"The Museum of Northern Arizona on Monday filed a fraud suit against a Santa Fe art broker who it alleges has not accounted for proceeds from a sale three years ago of some of the museum's most valuable art at a time when it was in extreme financial hardship," the story began.
"The suit, filed in Coconino County Superior Court, demands that Steven Diamant, owner of Fine Arts of the Southwest, disclose how much money he took in when 21 pieces of art were sold in private sales. The museum received $947,115 in the sales and paid Diamant $105,235 in commissions, according to court documents.
" Among the items sold were a Frederic S. Remington drawing called Lone Hopi Priest, which was donated to the museum by the late Sen. Barry Goldwater. Also, there were Southwestern oil paintings by noteworthy artists Edward A. Payne and Maynard Dixon and eight Navajo weavings. The covert sale of the art came at a time when the museum did not have a director and there were fears it would have to close because of financial problems. Revelations of the sale led to the resignation of the museum's board of directors and loss of accreditation with the American Association of Museums. Staff reporters wrote this story about the MNA situation in the Arizona Sun on April 26th.
"The 21 pieces of art the Museum of Northen1 Arizona Board of Trustees sold in 2002 are gone, but not forgotten," the story began.
"On April 5, the Museum of Northern Arizona filed a lawsuit against art dealer Steven Diamant of Santa Fe, N.M., demanding an accounting of the proceeds from the sales of these pieces. He was served this past weekend.
"It's not the first time the pieces have made news. Their sale, criticized as unethical by national museum officials, ultimately led to the resignation of all but four members of the museum's board and the loss of the museum's national accreditation. At the time, trustees said they needed the $1 million in proceeds to avoid having to close the museum's doors for lack of funds.
"Twelve pieces of western fine art, including works by illustrator Maynard Dixon and printmaker Gustav Bauman, nine ceremonial Navajo weavings, some more than a century old, plus unique Navajo sand painting textiles by Hosteen Klah, were sold to Diamant for a total of $1,052,350.
"According to the complaint filed, the museum learned that the ultimate retail sales prices for the works were substantially higher than the values that were represented to the Museum by Diamant, who "unjustly enriched and received substantially more from the ultimate retail sales of the de accessioned Works than was represented to the Museum." Diamant had not returned a phone call seeking comment by late Monday.
"As part of the original sale, Diamant was to account for the status of all 21 pieces and account for all proceeds. The museum claims Diamant has failed and refused to provide proper documentation. Although determining the location of these pieces could result in repurchasing them, this is not the immediate goal of the museum.
" 'We want to assert the importance of collections and these collections' importance to the mission. Our intention is to protect collections and to keep faith with our donors,' said Robert Breunig, MNA's director.
"Diamant, a former advertising executive who collects and sells Southwest artifacts in Santa Fe, N.M., produced the winning bid of $947,115. Diamant was well known among MNA members and its 60person staff, especially then-Deputy Director Edwin L. Wade, who, with his staff, were to select items from the collection for sale.
"Diamant was married to Wade's secretary and has sold antiquities to him in the past. According to F. Denise Colton, the granddaughter of the museum's founders, Wade recommended Diamant when she was seeking assistance in the sale of a family painting.
"Breunig said there are no plans to sue the 2002 board of trustees or then-Acting Director Robert Baughman. Baughman declined to comment. Breunig became the museum's director in December 2003. About the time he took over, the American Association of Museums (AAM) revoked MNA's accreditation because of the previous sale of 21 collection pieces.
"The museum submitted a new application on Dec. 3, 2004, and in February the AAM accepted the application."
Look for ATADA member Frank King in this April 25 New York Times story, "Indians Investing, but Carefully, in Hollywood" by James Ulmer.
Ulmer writes: "Decades after John Wayne and his cowboys vanquished the Indians for generations of white movie audiences, American Indian tribes are beginning to invest more than just lingering bad faith in Hollywood.
"A few tribes are starting to put money into the same mainstream media that once glorified their demise. One Indian-financed movie, Rick Schroder's recently released 'Black Cloud,' is about a young Navajo boxer who wins a spot on the United States Olympic team.
"In an alliance between Hollywood and Indian country, Mr. Schroder rallied 12 tribes around the country to finance his $1 million project which he also wrote. After 50 cold calls and six months of rejections, Mr. Schroder got his first yes and a low six-figure commitment from the Chickasaw Nation of Oklahoma. "
The Oneida Indian Nation of New York partnered with NBC sports to present 'The World of American Dance' in 2003, the first Indian-financed documentary to be shown on network television. The tribe, which fully financed the $350,000 production and took a loss on it, is also the first, and so far only, one to hire a Los Angeles public relations firm to help handle its Hollywood ventures.
" 'We wanted to begin to understand the business and for others to understand us, so our motives weren't solely for profit,' said Ray Halbritter, chief executive and nation representative for the Oneida Nation. 'It was important for us to show the industry we were capable of actually producing something, that we were a player.'
"These ventures are seen as loss leaders to help tribes gain a foothold in the mainstream media. What has made their investment possible is the growth of the lucrative casino business. According to the National Indian Gaming Association, tribes collected $18.5 billion in revenue in 2004, a 10 percent increase from the previous year.
"Hollywood producers have called on Indian financiers in the past, but almost all entreaties have been turned down by tribal financiers unimpressed with often non-Indian storylines or what they deemed to be cliched depictions of Indian culture. Both the Oneida of New York and the Mohegan Tribe of Connecticut turn down ab()ut a dozen script submissions a year.
" 'Hollywood in its own infinite deteriorating wisdom has always thought of us as invisible,' said Soimy Skyhawk, an American Indian producer in Los Angeles who was also a' partner in 'The World of American Dance.' 'Now that gaming has enabled us to empower ourselves, and people can see we're still here, our next hurdle is to make movies and programs that help change the old biases.'
"Indeed, many Indian business leaders say they are struggling with another mainstream caricature, born not from Hollywood but from 1988 federal legislation that allowed gaming on their lands.
" 'Indians have gone from the stereotypical impoverished noble savage to the stereotypical Mr. Money Bags,' said Tim Johnson, executive editor of the newspaper Indian Country Today. 'It's amazing how quickly we've been universally branded.'
"While each Indian sovereign nation has its own culture, there's a common ritual for those making business pitches to a tribe. As a candidate, Mr. Schroder had to make his case before each tribal council, which usually consists of up to a dozen businessmen and women and community leaders. 'When the elders of the council look you in the eye, if they don't like you and trust you, you'll get nowhere,' Mr. Schroder said.
"Securing a commitment from a tribe can take months, and producers hoping to find one-stop financing will probably be disappointed. The nations are highly competitive and rarely partner among themselves to invest in projects. That left Mr. Schroder crisscrossing the country in a dogged and scattered pursuit of tribal financing.
"Mark F. Brown, chairman of the Mohegan Tribe, which financed the East Coast release and media campaign for 'Black Cloud,' said that a movie 'is a very risky proposition,' compared to the safer returns from gambling. But he added: 'Our market is the New York area, and Rick's name is well known there from "NYPD Blue." , Mr. Schroder played Danny Sorenson, a detective, in the ABC drama series that ended this year.
"The Mohegan Tribe has also sponsored a premiere of 'I {heart} Huckabees' at their huge Mohegan Sun complex in Uncasville, Conn., the largest casino resort in the world. The tribe also donated $50,000 to a favorite charity of the film's star, Mark Wahlberg.
"If America's 215 gaming tribes are not exactly throwing open their vaults to movie producers, they may have good reason. Mr. Halbritter said that his tribe wanted to build relationships with Hollywood, but that it was hard to know whom to trust.
"Skepticism of Hollywood is not relieved by the industry's track record. Even the 1992 film 'Dances With Wolves,' which many Indians heralded as Hollywood's first positive and accurate portrayal of native life, left resentment after its release.
" 'Our reservations were flooded with New Agers who brought their crystals and started hundreds of sun dance cults,' said Frank King, editor of the Indian newspaper The Native Voice and a member of the Lakota tribe. 'It broke our culture, and we lost our ohuntka,' a Lakota word meaning original route.
"Filmmakers with a television or film documentary to sell may have the best shot at loosening tribal purse strings. 'Tribes will more readily fund a documentary project,' Mr. King said. 'They trust it more than a fiction film because it's a form through which they can directly tell their stories.'
"Currently, two major television projects are vying to offer the first Indian-run, nationally distributed programming for Indians. The most developed appears to be 'Indian Country Today on TV,' a spin off of Indian Country Today. The newspaper would provide editorial content for the program's 39 weekly half-hour shows covering Indian news and issues, which would be presented in a format similar to '60 Minutes.' The show's executive producer, Michael Fields, is petitioning PBS to distribute the series.
" 'This program must somehow fly above any contentious issues between the tribes,' said Mr. Fields, who is not Indian. 'It must show the outside world that these people have a common history and premise, though we'll portray the tribal differences, sure.'
"The nascent Native American Television Network, co-founded in Albuquerque by the half-Indian investment banker John Francis and his partner Anthony Conforti, also hopes to become the first publicly traded and advertising-supported 24-hour digital cable channel. It recently struck a distribution deal with WinSonic Digital Cable Network Systems, based in Atlanta.
"Mr. Skyhawk, the producer in Los Angeles, owns Amerind Entertainment. The company promotes his film and television projects both to tribes and to Hollywood, where his studio and network relationships make him one of the best-known conduits for Indians. He contends that Indians must exploit Hollywood's opportunities more deeply so that they can create their own media structures.
" 'We can't exist without Hollywood's machinations,' he said. 'So, I'm trying to impress on the tribes nationally that it's vitally important we become players. How are we going to overturn the image of the American Indian if we don't do it ourselves? Hollywood sure won't.'
"Mr. Skyhawk is doing what Mr. Schroder did: pitching to the tribal councils, one nation at a time. 'Our tribes are so afraid of the unknown,' he said. 'But we need to be proactive if we want to coexist on the American media scene. After all, we were the original storytellers.' "
"De Young's reopening will be freshened by stunning Oceanic art collection," was the headline for art critic Kenneth Baker's May 17 San Francisco Chronicle story on the new de Young museum and its new emphasis on tribal art.
The story began: "A dramatic presentation of New Guinea artifacts from the Jolika Collection, promised by Marcia and John Friede, will generate some of the excitement when the new M.H. de Young Memorial Museum opens in October."The Friedes have just added another cache of remarkable Oceanic art objects to their already peerless holdings. It will also come to the Fine Arts Museums of San FranCISCO. On a recent trip to Australia, John Friede concluded purchase of the Harry Beran Collection of nearly 1,000 objects made by the Massim people and other coastal dwellers of New Guinea. None of the Beran Collection material, still in Australia, will appear in the de Young's opening Oceanic art rotation. Proper photographic documentation of it has barely begun.
"Friede met Beran, a retired Australian academic, years ago, he told The Chronicle by phone. 'I've never known anyone with more complete files on the Massim material,' Friede said of Beran. 'He knows every object in obscure little collections in British universities and elsewhere.'
"Friede began discussing the possibility of buying Beran's collection when they happened to meet in Paris, while Beran was doing some research. "1 asked him, 'What are you going to do with this stuff?', Friede recalled. 'I know where it belongs.'
"Aware of the Friedes' promised gift to the de Young, Beran responded ' "You're right," , Friede said, , "but I don't want to lose access to the stuff because I want to write the book on it." ,
"So the collectors struck a deal whereby Beran will oversee a major publication on the Massim cultural artifacts. 'It will be so full of information that everything else on the subject will seem like a pamphlet,' Friede said of the planned volume. It will be part of a series of Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco publications to document the Jolika Collection, so named from the first two letters of the Friedes' grown children John, Lisa and Karen.
"Beran has also written for the de Young's inaugural publication descriptions of the few Massim objects the Friedes already owned.
"As to the value of the Beran Collection and the terms of its purchase, Friede said 'the price was not really a discussion point. He put together a figure that was more than a tiny amount and less than a dealer would want.'
"In contrast to the bold simplicity of art from New Guinea's interior highlands, Massim art is marked by 'extremely refined carving and an interest in precious materials,' Friede said. 'It's very decorative and extremely ritualized.'
"Scholars have inferred ancient contact between the Massim and cultures of South Asia based on formal echoes in their respective arts. 'It's difficult to know what happened way back then in the way of contact,' Friede said, noting the Massim's long seafaring history. But there are motifs from disparate cultures, 'too similar not to be related. We have a spear point from Vietnam that has a little row of interlocking bird heads and that is identical to the interlocking bird heads in Massim material and to similar motifs in Maori art.'
"Asked whether other New Guinea peoples remain underrepresented in the Jolika Collection, Friede said, 'We don't look at it that way .... There are a number of types of things that are underrepresented. One is pottery, which was made by women. I was able to obtain about 10 excellent pots from different sources, but pottery is hard to get. The men didn't value it that much, curators tended to think pots would be broken and therefore didn't buy them. Frankly, it's an area in which people could collect without spending a lot of money. Another are(l I'm actively looking in is jewelry and personal adornments.' "
"FBI finds majority of artifacts" was the headline the Desert Sum, a Palm Springs, CA, newspaper, on May 17. Unfortunately, the FBI failed to mention in their newspaper report that the objects were reported to them by an astute person who recognized them from photos of stolen objects posted on the Theft Alert page at www.atada.org. This valuable site posts, free of charge, photos and descriptions of any stolen antique tribal art, with case number and contact information. Anyone having lost tribal art in this manner is encouraged to use this free posting. This is but one instance of its success. Wide dissemination of photos of stolen objects are definite deterrents to reselling those objects, and have proven to aid in their recovery.
The story: The FBI has recovered 14 of the 17 valuable Native American artifacts stolen in January from the Cabazon Cultural Museum because, according to Joseph Stuart, the FBI's senior resident agent in Palm Springs, 'a concerned citizen was able to locate them and called me and we recovered them.'
"Stuart said that no charges had been filed in connection with the disappearance of the Native American baskets and pottery pieces worth more than $100,000 and the concerned citizen's identity is remaining confidential. " 'We recovered everything Sunday,' Stuart said in a telephone interview Monday. 'I still don't know who stole them. This is the recovery aspect of it, not the criminal charging of it.' The pieces were recovered, Stuart said, but did not specify an exact location.
"There's an ongoing investigation into who burglarized the museum early on the morning of Jan. 11, Stuart said. The back door of the museum was breached and the cases were broken. The intruders made off with pottery that is Hopi, Pueblo and Zuni in origin and all of the pieces are anywhere from 100 to 150 years old. The baskets and the pottery had been on display since the museum opened nearly three years ago.
All eight of the baskets stolen were Cahuilla and the Cabazons are members of the Cahuilla tribe. All but one of the baskets taken were on loan from the California State Resource Museum. One was on loan from the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians and the pottery was on loan from a private individual Stuart said. The baskets are roughly from the same time period, between 1890 and 1920 or 1930.
" 'They are irreplaceable,' Sandy MacLeod, curator for the state museum told The Desert Sun in February. 'They're one of a kind.' Three pieces - two pieces of pottery and one basket belonging to the state of California Parks Department - are still missing.
" 'That particular basket that we did not recover is a nontraditional design/ Stuart said. 'They call it a basketry bowl, Cahuilla but nontraditional.'
"Two pottery pieces - both earthenware with no designs on them - are still missing as well. One is a three-legged bowl and the other is an earthenware vessel.
" 'I notified the legal owners of all the property that we recovered and they are ecstatic. If you just lose money, you lose money. These are irreplaceable and are cultural artifacts. When they learned that these items were recovered, they were very happy,' Stuart said.
" 'Not just the Agua Caliente but the Cabazon tribe because these things were all on loan.'
"The FBI was involved in the investigation, Stuart said, because 'there's a specific federal law that has to do with taking something from a museum.' Items from a recognized museum, items worth a specific amount or items of cultural significance all fall under that law, he said.
"The U.S. Attorney's office and the Cabazon tribe requested that the FBI get involved, Stuart, who has been at the Palm Springs office since 1989, said."
Look for Tom Murray's quote in this New York Times Antiques column by Suzanne Charlé on an exhibit at the Textile Museum in Washington, D.C. in The New York Times on May 20, called "Textile Treasures of Asia and the Power of Cloth."
"In an age awash with graphic images on television and the Web," Charlé began, "in film and .in print, it is hard to imagine a world in which the hopes and fears, the very structure of society were literally woven into the patterns of cloth. But visitors to the Textile Museum in Washington have a chance to step back into that time at the exhibition 'Textiles for This World and Beyond: Treasures From Insular Southeast Asia' (through Sept. 18).
"With more than 60 textiles culled from the museum's collection, Mattiebelle Gittinger, the research associate for Southeast Asian textiles who organized the show, leads a thought-provoking exploration into the importance of textiles in Indonesian and Malaysian daily life, showing the ways communities used them to negotiate between the human and spirit worlds, warning off evil spirits and beckoning the gods.
"In that part of the world textiles have been central to traditions and laws for thousands of years and are crucial to important ceremonies, from birth to marriage to death and beyond. In Borneo - the huge island made famous in the West by Joseph Conrad - no headhunting raid by an Than tribe was complete without pua kumbu, powerful cloth woven to receive and honor the heads of slain enemies on the longhouse gallery. Though heads are no longer officially taken, pua kumbu are still treasured and brought out to attract the gods.
"The show has several excellent 19th century examples. In shades of rust, beige and indigo, pua kumbu capture the most ancient images of the Iban. In one, a maze of interlocking crocodiles writhe, some with tails encircling warriors carrying heads, others contentedly lolling with bellies full of men. In another, the mythical tiger spirit guardian of headhunters - was so powerful that weavers 'contained' it with borders.
"Only a woman of great moral and psychic strength could, through dreams, contact the spirit world and translate those dreams into patterns. 'If the design wasn't interpreted correctly, the weaver could fall sick' Ms. Gittinger noted, in a recent interview at the museum, adding that the task was so perilous that a woman would weave only two or perhaps three pua kumbu in her life. 'Highest prestige in the village went to the men who were the best headhunters,' she said, 'and to women who wove the great designs. Although they couldn't participate in headhunting, they were totally equal to the men.'
"Other batiks playfully mirror Western pop culture. One in the show is animated with Flash Gordon figures. Indonesia in the 1930s had its own moral code, however, so the weaver banned all the comic's scantily clad maidens.
"The Dutch were the first to study Indonesian textiles. In America, interest began with shows in the 1970s, including one at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art organized by Mary Kahlenberg and another by Ms. Gittinger at the Textile Museum. In the 1980s, waves of surfers-turned-dealers and others traveled the islands, opening the field to collectors. The trading frenzy swept away many of the important pieces from Indonesia to private collectors and museums.
"The sheer beauty and powerful imagery of the textiles inspire fascination. Nineteenth-century porilonjong ('long ikat') from Toraja in Sulawesi are graphic wonders. The largest textiles made in Southeast Asia, some are more than 15 feet long and almost 5 feet wide, and required a crew of women to tie the yarns to create the bold geometric patterns.
" 'Imagine, these were made on backstrap looms,' Ms. Gittinger said."
In Arts, Briefly, in The New York Times on May 21, Carol Vogel made this contribution, a cautionary tale titled "Indictment on Antiquities."
"Two years after Marion True, the curator of antiquities at the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, was indicted in Rome on charges of receiving stolen antiquities for the Getty, the Italian authorities have ordered her to stand trial on July 18. The case grew out of a 10-year investigation into the trafficking of ancient artifacts. Both Dr. True and the museum deny the charges. A statement released by the museum yesterday said: 'The Getty has cooperated fully with Italian authorities in this matter. During the course of the Italian authorities' preliminary investigation, the Getty reviewed and provided to the prosecutors thousands of pages and documents from our files. We trust that this trial will result in her exoneration and end further damage to the personal and professional reputation of Dr. True.' Dr. True is traveling in Greece and could not be reached for comment."
"Last Chance; Spiritual Power in a Multicultural Encampment" by Holland Cotter in the New York Times on May 23 was about the ''fabulous'' International Tribal & Textile Arts Show in New York. Look for mentions of Throckmorton Fine Art and Thomas Murray, as well as Cotter's theory of the emerging strength of the tribal art market.
"The installation crew was hustling out the backdoor as guests were coming in the front of the Seventh Regiment Armory on Friday evening for a preview of the New York International Tribal & Textile Arts Show. The show - which started small downtown, and under a slightly different name 11 years ago - has for some reason always operated on a wackily tight schedule: up fast, down fast, gone. This is one reason many New Yorkers don't even know about one of the best annual art fairs in the city.
"They should. It has matured into a big deal. With 75 galleries, the show now fills a space that once dwarfed it, and has a longer run (through tomorrow). More important, its critical mass of art from Africa, Asia, Australia and the Americas projects an aura of visual and intellectual glamour. The result is, potentially, the sort of fair that people visit not out of specialized interest but just because it's there: an event, an experience.
"It certainly has a distinctive look. Compared with the Old World pomp of the International Fine Art Fair and the fragrant luxe of the Asian Art Fair, the Tribal & Textile Arts Show feels light, intimate, contemporary, less like a lineup of crammed treasuries than an encampment of tents, sparely appointed, open to the air.
"This impression comes partly from the physical qualities of the art. Nearly half the galleries deal in textiles. And much of the fair's dominant medium, sculpture, is made of wood or clay or some other unprecious, perishable, portable material.
"Yet another factor is the non imperial character of many cultures represented. 'Tribal' as a descriptive term is considered out of date by many scholars. But its implied emphasis on communality over monumentalizing conquest makes some sense. Not that the art on view isn't about power; most of it is. SlIt the power is as often spiritual as political, and more often benign than malignant.
"In any case, for a quick lesson in the sheer variety that tribal encompasses, scan the sculpture, beginning with African work. A reliquary head of beaten metal over wood from Gabon (at Serge Schaffel Arts Primitits, Brussels) is broad, light-reflecting and slightly concave, like a satellite dish open to signals from the beyond. By contrast, a wooden reliquary figure from roughly the same region is pole-thin and light-absorbing, its face a tight wedge of cautionary anger (at Dalton-Somare Milan).
"Oceanic art tends to more refined in its theatricality. A mask from New Ireland, part of Papua New Guinea, is a charismatic example: fierce but petite, with inlaid eyes and tiny white painted-on teeth (Lewis/ Wara Gallery, Seattle). And while a terra-cotta shaman from ancient Mexico has affinities with Western-style realism (Splendors of the World, Hawaii), a Taino stone carving from the Caribbean takes "real" in another direction; it suggests nature returning to a condition of formlessness (Throckmorton Fine Art, New York). "
Sometimes nature itself is a sculptor, as in a weathered wooden figure from Indonesia, its surface scoured and gouged by exposure. You'll find the piece at the booth of Thomas Murray, a California-based dealer who has also organized a special exhibition for the fair.
"Titled 'In Celebration of the fragment,' it subtly, even tenderly, illustrates the idea that the physical history of art as we have it is a patchwork of incomplete and broken things, chips and scraps of worlds we can never recover intact. Art fairs, with their eclectic jumble, tend to compound a sense of disruption and loss. Here, even more than in museums, objects can look uprooted, and the ethics of their dispersal and acquisition can feel deeply troubling.
"Yet within the tatters of history, whole fabrics survive. And the show abounds in them: a Turkoman robe embroidered with scarlet pinwheels (at Mehmet Cetinkaya, Istanbul); an ultra-minimalist Moroccan carpet (Gebhart Blazek, Vienna); a superb Nigerian openwork weaving in solid indigo, reminiscent of the work of the American artist Lenore Tawney (Gail Martin Gallery, New York)
"That these things are together for a few days under one New York roof is remarkable, but logical. Thanks in large part to the multiculturalist wave, non-Western art seems to be gaining a market, an academic presence and a popular audience that it has not had in such strength before. True, aesthetic terms and the valuations they carry remain unsettled: art versus craft, folk art versus tribal art, high versus low. So I'd like to propose that everyone meet at the Tribal & Textile Arts Show today or tomorrow to hammer them out. Because the first word likely to come to mind on arrival is fabulous, and all else will follow from that."
Fashion Alert! A picture of Lynn Willis appeared in "On The Street," New York Times photographer Bill Cunniugham's iconic weekly fashion feature on Sunday, May 29, as an example of how "the ethnic patterns, colors and embellishments of the 1960s and 70s appear to be having a fresh say in the present age of rigid big-brand conformity ... Witness the outfits on women at the Recent 'Tribal and Textile Art' show at the Seventh Regiment Armory ... "
More on the New York Tribal and Textile Art show, this time by Hali's editor, Daniel Shaffer. Mentioned: Tom Murray, Andres Moraga and Chris Selser.
"Now in its eleventh year (but only its second at the uptown Park Avenue Armory), Caskey-Lees' 2005 New York International Tribal and Textile Arts Show (20-24 May) could hardly have got off to a shakier start, with a very thinly attended opening preview for the benefit of the undeniably worthy Byrd Hoffmann Watermill Foundation. The sparse attendance called into question the value of the pressured one-day-only set-up required in order to be ready for a modestly catered Friday evening opening in New York - particularly on the night of a must-be-seen-at ball game - in the run-up to the Memorial Day holidays, when many of the city's wealthiest potential art buyers have already taken off for their beach houses in the Hamptons or further afield. Indeed the most exciting moment of the opening night was when the NY rug scene's resident drag queen, Zandra Foxx, made his /her customary high-profile entrance.
"Thankfully, the next four days were better. The weekend was still less productive in terms of numbers than in 2004, but the very timely publication on Monday morning (23 May) of an upbeat and enthusiastic review by Holland Cotter in the New York Times [see above article], winningly entitled 'Last Chance: Spiritual Power in a Multicultural Encampment' certainly worked some sympathetic magic, bringing in a fresh crowd of people from outside the normal tribal and textile art loop for the Monday and Tuesday. The result was that the show, over its full run (extended by a day from last year), achieved a modest 8 percent increase in total attendance over 2004. Business was, as always at these events, patchy, but there were some very positive sales in most areas of the hall, and dealer disappointment at the slow start was undoubtedly considerably mitigated by the end of play on Tuesday.
"That having been said, there was a wide range of quality and pricing on offer, with some spectacular and subtle textiles from Asia, Africa and and the Americas, a huge variety of tribal, folk and ethnographic artifacts from the world over: some beautiful, others frankly ugly, and a generally disappointing offering from most of the specialist Oriental rug dealers, with relatively few pieces on show that will linger in the memory.
"To my mind, and that of other observers, the top textile of the show was the dramatic large-scale Nazca (ca. 200-400 AD) painted cotton cloth with stylized birds in flight shown by Steve and Gail Berger (Arte Textil, San Francisco). Other high-end early Andean material appeared on William Siegal of Santa Fe's stand, and also with Thomas Murray from Mill Valley in California, who sold a beautiful feather work tabard to a local collector. Murray, who is ubiquitous at tribal art shows around the USA, has not, in my memory, presented a better-looking stand than on this occasion, with fine Southeast Asian textiles, in particular an uncommon white Japanese 'boro,' a black-ground Flores ceremonial sarong, and some of the best Than Dayak cloths I have seen on the market.
"Facing Murray across the central 'plaza' in the Armory was New York's Gail Martin, on whose large stand textile art of the highest quality was tasteful1y displayed. Pride of place went to a superb colonial period tapestry from Peru, while her collection of Aymara weavings from the Bolivian/Peruvian altiplano caused much excitement, and their impact was heightened by their display alongside graphic, contemporary looking textiles and robes from Asia and Africa.
"A couple of stands away were Andres and Vanessa Moraga from Berkeley in California, with a predominantly African theme. Over the course of the fair their Ituri bark cloth paintings from the Congo sold well, including several to a single buyer. African material also figured large on Joss Graham's stand, as too on that of New York specialist dealer Michael Rhodes, who showed an apparently rare green-ground west African narrow-strip cloth.
"On Santa Fe tribal art dealer Christopher Selser's characteristically austere blue-walled booth, a Borneo pua and two Lampung tampans, one blue, one red, faced a small Bosque Redondo period Navajo saddle rug. Another of the tribal art dealers, William Jamieson of Toronto, whose taste for the macabre and unusual always adds character to these events, showed a 1940s New Guinea shield embellished with the image of the comic book character 'The Phantom'. The super-hero, introduced to the island by the US troops stationed there during the Pacific war, was taken up by the tribes of the interior as a beneficent and powerful minor 'deity', and remains so to this day. On the stand of London's Bryan Reeves (Tribal Gathering), this African tribal art specialist showed a brilliantly displayed and lit Dink~ bead work 'corset' from the Sudan, arguably the best yet in a series that he has collected and owned.
"The themes on London textile dealer Esther Fitzgerald's stand were calligraphic textiles from several different cultures on the one hand, and six-pointed stars - the so called Seal of Solomon or Star of David - a symbol which, until the days of the modern Zionist movement, was more closely associated with Judaic mysticism (the Kaballah) and Freemasonry, than with Jewish nationalism. It appeared on cloths from as far apart as a French toile and calligraphic cotton batik skirts and head cloths from Indonesia and Malaysia.
"A strong Japanese theme was evident of the stand of fellow London traders Alan Marcuson and Diane Hall, whose ef forts have been at least partly responsible for the current vogue for Japanese 'bora' patchworks. They added to the known volume of these perhaps somewhat over-hyped items, and also has a couple of fascinating Sakiori panels, strip-woven covers with a 'pile' of recycled rags. In addition to the now very fancy Orient Stars south Caucasian medallion rug they had also showed in San Francisco (HALl 139. p.l01), they also had one of the most intriguing of the oriental rugs on show, an eye-catching fragment of a wool on coarse un dyed cotton Deccani pile rug, perhaps 18th century, with a synthesized boteh/intamani design on an ivory ground. "
Elsewhere among the ruggies, Udo Langauer, with an amazingly large stock shipped from Vienna, showed both a good blue-ground classical Caucasian Dragon carpet, and red ground blossom carpet of similar vintage. Fellow Austrian Gebhart Blazek's large-scale Moroccan rugs, in particular a handsome grey and pink Zenaga from his 'private' collection, attracted much admiration, and his sales also reportedly picked up towards the end of (and after) the fair.
Berlin's Thomas Wild successfully sold a rare and unusual double-sided plain blue-ground Berber carpet to a Connecticut collector / dealer, and also showed the best kilim "on view", a very damaged Yüncü fragment last seen in San Francisco. Wild was informaLly sl1.aring his large stand (and interest in Himalayan material) with Stuttgart's Ulrike Montigel (Galeriie Arabesque), whose Uzbek ikat velvet robe '''''as one of the best we have seen in recent years. Also visible on Montigel's stand was the Turkmen bokche that has been the subject of malicious chatter on the internet. While only a fragment, with two of its four flaps extant, there is no good reason to doubt its authenticity.
"Best Turkmen rug on show was a lovely Tekke six-gul torba with Cocoon of Istanbul, who also presented and sold a small Tekke rug formerly in the Robert Pinner Collection. Other Turkmen/Central Asian pile pieces included Langauer's Beshir prayer rug and a good Saryk chuval. Stolp Fraser - a last minute replacement for Ron Hort, whose health problems continue - showed an unusual Yomut main carpet familiar from ACOR in Seattle, while Mehmet cetinkaya from Istanbul's Central Asian, Caucasian and Turkish textiles again lived up to expectations. Fellow Istanbul dealer Cengiz had a very interesting little 19th century Konya region village rug with a Greek inscription, "while Colorado's Michael Phillips had an interesting 1920s non-Turkmen central Asian carpet with an inscription in Cyrillic script.
"Other rugs of note around the show included a very pretty little multi-colored Tibetan checkerboard khaden with John Ruddy (whose sensitive display of Himalayan, Southeast Asian and Japanese textiles again deserved much approbation), more good Tibetans with Thomas Mond, Thomas Wild and Ulrike Montigel, and an excellent Bakhshaish with John J. Collins. Among the New York specialist carpet dealers, Hagop Manoyan showed a highly desirable and rather unusual little Shirvan prayer rug, while The Nemati. Collection's 'chocolate brown' decorative theme seemed a little out of place in this exotic company, perhaps reflecting Darius Nemati's increasing concern with fatherhood,
"As at the Caskey-Lees Tribal and Arts of Pacific Asia shows in San Francisco (February) and at the Gramercy Park Armory (March April), the special exhibition was a reprise of Tom Murray's 'In Celebration of the Fragment,' showing fragmentary objects and textiles gathered from exhibitor's inventory. This should, be its fourth and final outing: it has given good mileage, but one can have too much of a good thing."
In The New York Times on June 14, Jolin Noble Wilford's latest story had the intriguing headline, "Maya Tomb Tells Tale of Two Women, Elite but Doomed."
Wilford's story: "In their more scholarly moments, archaeologists may speak earnestly of settlement patterns and cultural transitions, the analytical thrusts of their research. But down deep, they live for the thrill of turning stones aside and finding a full tomb, especially if they are searching around Maya ruins in Guatemala."Dr. David Freidel of Southern Methodist University cast one appraising look on a pyramid at a site known as Waka and said he felt the presence of tombs hidden inside, waiting to be discovered. One likely place to look was a broad landing on a stone stairway leading up the pyramid to the temple at the summit. Or perhaps under a stone shrine midway up the face of the pyramid.
"Michelle E. Rich, a graduate student at S.M.U., and Jennifer C. Piehl of Tulane began excavating under the shrine and broke through to a vaulted chamber. They found the remains of two women, apparently of elite status. Offerings of seven colorful ceramic vessels included one with a lid decorated with three royal crowns in a style associated with the fourth century A.D.
"In a separate burial, the archaeologists found the skeleton of a third woman, who appeared to be of an advanced age, accompanied by similar pottery. 'The discoveries, made in April, were announced two weeks ago at the Ministry of Culture and Sports in Guatemala City. Dr. Freidel and Hector Escobedo of the University of San Carlos in Guatemala are directors of the excavations at Waka, known today as El Peru, in the jungle 40 miles west of Tikal, the famous Maya site.
"Dr. Freidel said in an e-mail message that the handsome pottery, dated about A.D. 350, ranked 'with the best we have from the Early Classic period of Maya civilization and demonstrates that Waka was a mainstream player in the civilization of that time.'
"The absence of any inscriptions on the tomb chamber made it impossible to identify the two women. But the symbolism of the ceramics and other evidence, Dr. Freidel said, suggested that the women had links to royalty, either as members of a ruling family or attendants in a royal court.
"The women were young, 25 to 35, and apparently in robust health at death; one was pregnant. They had no dental cavities, indicating that their diet was rich in meat and fruit, not corn, the staple of commoners. And they seemed to have been interred at the same time, one on top of the other in the small chamber.
"The two women almost certainly died as 'sacrifices in the context of a royal ritual,' Dr. Freidel concluded.
"They could have been sacrificed, he speculated, in the ceremonies dedicating the stairway shrine or for the accession of a new king. In other Maya art, two nude women are depicted assisting the maize god's resurrection.
" 'The stacking of the two women underscores the fact they are to be regarded as a pair,' Dr. Freidel said, 'I infer that these two sacrificed women symbolize this pair of helpers of the maize god.'
"The archaeologists noted that royal crowns In the style of the ones at Waka have been found decorating artifacts uncovered at Tikal. The grave goods were placed in tombs holding remains of the royal household, who appeared to have suffered similar fates as sacrifices.
"Next, the excavators at Waka plan to extend their search for other tombs in the pyramid, perhaps the burials of a king or queen who were attended by the two unfortunate young women.'
"War Bonnet Stolen" was the headline on Jeff Lehr's May 28 story in the Joplin (MO) Globe.
"It is a traditional American Indian belief," the story began, "that eagle feathers must be earned by honorable acts. But someone stole an antique Plains Indian war bonnet containing 40 golden eagle feathers by smashing some glass and removing it from the display window in the early-morning hours of May 17 at the Frame Shop & Gallery in downtown Miami, Okla.
"The ten-foot-long headdress belonging to artist Charles Banks Wilson was on loan to the store's owner Jim Cobb because Cobb offers some of Wilson's artwork for sale at his store. Wilson, 86, who lived in Miami much of his life but currently lives in Fayetteville, Ark, had the bonnet for 67 years after it was given to him by a Pottawatomie woman in 1938 when he was 19.
" 'She gave it to me because she appreciated my drawings of the remaining pure-blood Indians around Ottawa County," Wilson said in a telephone interview this week. He believes it is more than 100 years old, although its origins are uncertain. Wilson said it is clearly a southern Plains Indian headdress, most likely Sioux or Cheyenne. It features a beaded headband with fox fur and buffalo horns and the 40 eagle feathers.
"Wilson used the war bonnet for two of his more famous portraits entitled 'The Young Chief' and 'Man of Honor.' Quapaw Chief Victor Griffin was photographed in the war bonnet in 1950. Movie stars and famous politicians stopped by Wilson's studio in Miami in the past to see the bonnet.
"Wilson recalled fondly how Dave Rubinoff, director of the orchestra for Eddie Cantor's radio show and a friend of Will Rogers once dropped in and wore the headdress while viewing Wilson's art work in his studio and playing a Stradivarius violin.
"He regards the theft of the war bonnet as something akin to desecration. 'I feel it's like stealing a religious icon' Wilson told the Globe. 'The bonnet - the way it is made and everything - is an object of respect, like something from a church.'
"'Eagle feathers were held as objects of worship by the Indians of the Plains,' he said. 'Many braves wore a single eagle feather. It was worn at a downward angle if they remained untested and then straight up once tested. A brave who'd scalped an enemy wore two feathers and one who'd captured an enemy wore five' he said
"'A war bonnet was made and worn only with the consent of fellow warriors granting the distinction to unusual displays of valor,' Wilson said. 'The eagle's speed, strength, majesty and solitary nature and the hazards involved in capturing an eagle made (the feathers) worthy of the honor,' he said.
"His daughter, Carrie Wilson, 50, said Miami police have not been able to come up with good leads on the theft of the bonnet. She said her father and her are hoping whoever stole it will realize the travesty of what they've done and will return it. She said the bonnet can be left at the Miami Public Library. No questions will be asked and no charges pursued, she said.
"Carrie Wilson, a cultural resource consultant for the Quapaw and Osage tribes, and a coordinator of Native American affairs for the Louisiana National Guard, said it is illegal for anyone to sell the headdress since it contains eagle feathers. 'Even a museum has to have a permit to have a bonnet with eagle feathers in its permanent collection,' she said.
"Her father planned to donate the headdress to the Gilcrease Museum in Tulsa, Okla., where about 200 of his drawings of pure-blood Indians are displayed. Wilson also has a number of historical murals in the rotunda of the Oklahoma Capitol along with a number of portraits of famous Oklahomans."
From a June 24 story in the Durham/Chapel Hill NC Herald Sun: "Woman sentenced for selling feathers from endangered species."
Datelined Raleigh, NC, the story began: "The woman who sold tribal art pieces that contained feathers of endangered and protected species to the man who now leads the Smithsonian Institution was sentenced Wednesday to help the Amazon's indigenous tribes.
"Rosita Heredia, a cultural anthropologist originally from Brazil, was sentenced Wednesday for selling the 1/000-piece collection in 1998 to Lawrence Small, who now leads the Smithsonian. She lived in Cary at the time, so the case was heard in Raleigh.
"It is illegal in the United States to sell, transport or possess feathers and other body parts from endangered species. Prosecutors said Wednesday that Heredia also sold a small part of her collection for $40,000 to Robert Lehrman, a Washington art collector and board member of the Hirshhorn museum, a contemporary art museum that is part of the Smithsonian.
"Lehrman did not return a message Wednesday, The News & Observer of Ra; leigh reported.
"U.S. District Court Judge Terrence Boyle sentenced Heredia to three years of probation, including 40 hours of traditional community service. Boyle also ordered her to make two $10,000 donations to two environmental organizations working to save the Amazon. Then Boyle ordered Heredia to spend two of the next three years involved in the effort to preserve and protect these resources, referring to the tribal culture and the Amazon.
"Heredia now lives in Orlando, Fla. Her collection is in Richmond, Va. in the possession of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, said Allen Hundley, the wildlife agent who investigated the case.
"Small's misdemeanor plea in 2004 did not affect his job at the Smithsonian, which he did not head at the time of the sale. Court officials said Wednesday that he hasn't completed his 100 hours of community service. A message left Wednesday for Small at his Washington office was not returned, the newspaper said. Boyle said Small risks violating his probation if he doesn't complete his probation within six months."
The July-August, 2005 edition of Native Peoples Magazine has profiles of 10 dealers of antique Native American art, seven of whom are ATADA members.
Profiled dealers include Marcy Burns, Jed Foutz, Michael Kokin, Kim Martindale, Nedra Matteucci, Ramona Morris and Ted Trotta-Bono.
"William N. Fenton, 96, Expert on Iroquois, Is Dead," is the headline for Fenton's obituary in The New York Times on June 23.
The Associated Press story datelined Albany, NY, read, "William N. Fenton, a scholar of Iroquois culture and former director of the New York State Museum, died on Friday in Cooperstown. He was 96."He was visiting relatives at the time of his death, they said.
"Dr. Fenton began studying the Iroquois in the 1930s, when he lived with the Senecas on the tribe's reservations in western. New York. He became fluent in the Iroquois language and published several books considered definitive works on the customs and ceremonies of the Six Nations of the Iroquois Confederacy.
"Dr. Fenton worked as a senior ethnologist for the Smithsonian Institution in the 1950s before joining the New York State Museum in Albany. Dr. Fenton left the state museum to teach at the State University in Albany and retired in 1979. After retirement, he was on the board of the Museum of the American Indian in New York when it merged with the Smithsonian.
"William Nelson Fenton was born Dec. 15, 1908, in New Rochelle. He received a bachelor's degree from Dartmouth in 1931 and did graduate work in anthropology at Yale, where he received a doctorate in 1937. His wife, Olive Louise Ortwine Fenton, died in 1986. A son, Harry, died in the early 1940s. He is survived by a daughter, Elizabeth Fenton Snyder of Cooperstown, and two sons, John W. of Malden Bridge, N.Y., and Douglas B. of Homer, N.Y."
