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Totems to Turquoise: Native North American Jewelry Arts of the Northwest and Southwest
Published to coincide with a traveling exhibition, an exploration of the jewelry art of thirty-nine regional Native American artists considers the ways in which visual adornment reflects cross-cultural traditions, in a lavishly illustrated resource that is complemented by anthropological and historical information. 15,000 first printing.
- GenresArt
224 pages, Hardcover
Published December 7, 2004
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
August 31, 2009
Totems to Turquoise is a companion-book to an exhibit of Southwest and Pacific Northwest Indian jewellery art that was mounted by the American Museum of Natural History in 2004/05.
The book is divided into two sections - one for the Pacific Northwest and one for the Southwest. Each section gives a brief overview of the cultural context of the jewellery followed by individual profiles of masters of the jewellery of that region (people like Bill Reid and Charles Loloma who worked in the 50's and 60's) and then contemporary artists. The profiles of the contemporary artists are written in their own words; they explain what drew them to work with their cultural artistic traditions, how they approach their work and what carrying on the artistic tradition means to themselves and their communities.
As far as Native Canadian/American history and artistic tradition goes, this book is a mere intro. The comparison/contrast between the jewellery arts of the two regions is very interesting though, and because the thoughts of the contemporary artists are articulated in their own words, the book leaves you with a better understanding of how these artistic traditions are still relevant and meaningful today. This understanding is facilitated by the beautiful array of photographs featured in the book, of both historic and contemporary pieces of jewellery.
The book is divided into two sections - one for the Pacific Northwest and one for the Southwest. Each section gives a brief overview of the cultural context of the jewellery followed by individual profiles of masters of the jewellery of that region (people like Bill Reid and Charles Loloma who worked in the 50's and 60's) and then contemporary artists. The profiles of the contemporary artists are written in their own words; they explain what drew them to work with their cultural artistic traditions, how they approach their work and what carrying on the artistic tradition means to themselves and their communities.
As far as Native Canadian/American history and artistic tradition goes, this book is a mere intro. The comparison/contrast between the jewellery arts of the two regions is very interesting though, and because the thoughts of the contemporary artists are articulated in their own words, the book leaves you with a better understanding of how these artistic traditions are still relevant and meaningful today. This understanding is facilitated by the beautiful array of photographs featured in the book, of both historic and contemporary pieces of jewellery.
January 18, 2017
Very useful collection of impressive pieces of jewelry by Native artists from the US Northwest and Southwest, focusing mainly on contemporary work but contextualized with some older pieces. Pretty selective -- necessarily, this was originally a fairy small museum show -- but with great, large photos and good text. 3.5 stars if I could split hairs.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews