Native North American Art

by Janet Catherine Berlo and Ruth B. Phillips

Book Overview

This exciting investigation explores the indigenous arts of the US and Canada from the early pre-contact period to the present day, stressing the conceptual and iconographic continuities over five centuries and across an immensely diverse range of regions. The richness of Native American art is emphasized through discussions of basketry, wood and rock carvings, dance masks, and beadwork, alongside the contemporary vitality of paintings and installations...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0192842188
• ISBN13: 9780192842183
• Release Date: November 1998
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Length: 304 Pages
• Weight: 1.63 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.5" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

Beautiful photos, excellent overview of the subject

This book was required for an Introduction to Native American Arts class that I took just for fun at school. It is an easy and interesting read, and the punctuation of gorgeous photographs of a wide range of art from all over the North American regions, makes it a pleasant experience. While I do not keep all of my textbooks, this is one that will remain in my collection as a reference and as one that I anticipate using as I research Native American cultures in upcoming classes. My only criticism of this book is that "art" is by default, defined as only visual arts, rather than including performance, literary and musical arts. It is also only an overview, and will not provide a complete explanation of every type of Native American art tradition, or even represent every tribal group. Quite honestly, I would recommend this book to anyone researching or studying Native American culture, history and/or tradition, since the art is much more interesting to many people, and the culture, history and tradition are such an important part of the art, reading about Native art will also give a good overview of the other subjects.

Native North American Art

Was wonderful to find a book covering Native American art with photos that I haven't seen over and over in various other reference publications. Easy to read. In great condition and came right on time. thanks!

a must-have, for all levels.

Berlo's and Phillips' erudite, critical voices are a welcome change from the often glossy, sales-driven world of Indian art writing. True to form, they have together crafted a sophisticated and highly readable survey of pre-contact, historic and contemporary Indian art, suitable for undergrads, grads, and the casual layperson. This book fills a HUGE gap, and stakes out a territory that few other scholars would dare venture; between connoisseurship, anthropology, visual culture and criticl theory. It is therefore to be expected that specialists of a particular region might take issue with some of their finer details. But specialist nit-picking misses the larger point of this book: to show how Native tribes across North America continued their cultural traditions despite colonialism and intertribal contact. It is a complex, interwoven history, but Indian art emerges, through this book, as one of the most vital, politically engaged arts in America today. This book sets the standard for Indian Art surveys.

superb one-book resource

one book can only give the reader a brief overview of the wealth of american indian art. the traditional art (i don't acknowledge a split between art and craft) was produced by all the nations, spans pre-historic and historic eras, and has been collected for centuries. the contemporary art is flourishing and much is breathtaking. that being said, this book does a wonderful job of covering such an immense subject.the only complaint i have is the relative paucity of photos. but i would feel that way if the book were nothing but photos.

Difficult to read at first but picks up throughout.

The book is a bit slow at first and seems to linger on certain topics but the overall images are better than other books on the same topic.