Picturing America
National Endowment for the
Humanities
WELCOME STUDENTS
What is this class all about ?
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This is a class about art that reflects North
America that is presently the United States of
America.
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This class will offer a way to understand the
history of America.
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We will study art from 1100 AD to the present
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Art is not something that you just hang
on the wall that looks good with the
couch.
WHY STUDY ART ?
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Art is a reflection of the time
Art tells a story of people and a way of life
Art evokes emotion
When we gain an understanding of the past,
we will be able to understand where we are
as a nation and where we have come from
and the foundations that made this country.
ARE WE JUST LOOKING AT
PICTURES?
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We will also be reading literature
Watching movies
Studying maps
As well as writing…..
Hopefully as a class we will discover other
areas that we can gain more of an
understanding of the time period.
WHO ARE AMERICANS ?
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Have a greater sense of who Americans are
Where Americans came from
How Americans lived and now live
How Americans adapted
How Americans have grown as a nation
STUDYING ART WILL
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Enable you to look at and appreciate works of
art whether it is American or not.
Recognize symbolism in art.
Apply the time period of history to the
artwork.
Make connections with American history
facts, geography and literature.
CLASSROOM RULES
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Everyone is expected to participate.
Please leave all cell phones in the basket.
If you disrupt the class you will be asked to
stop. If it persists, you will be asked to leave.
You must bring your notebook, pen and any
other material assigned for that day to class.
Duh!
Enjoy this class.
IF YOU NEED TO CONTACT ME
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I will be communicating by email. My email is
lorrainekpsmith@gmail.com
Website: www.humanitiesusa.wordpress.com
Please email me with questions, comments,
absences.
 My home phone number is 952-0722.
WHAT YOU NEED FOR CLASS
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A Three ring binder with tabs and paper.
A pen.
The assigned reading books:
Common Sense,
Across 5 Aprils,
Up From Slavery.
Native American Art
ANASAZI – PUEBLO PEOPLE
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Lived c. 1100 – c.1960
Anasazi’s were farmers who built
homesteads, small villages and a great
cultural capital in Chaco Canyon, NM
They engineered towns, multistory apartment
buildings and a road network.
By the Thirteenth century, they had
abandoned the area and moved South to
smaller settlements. Descendents- Pueblos
ANASAZI LANDS
THE FOUR CORNERS
THE FOUR CORNERS
ANASAZI INDIANS
Anasazi History
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Pueblo Bonito is located in the Four Corners region in Chaco Canyon, New Mexico. It was constructed over a
thousand year span by the Anasazi Indians. The formation of Pueblo Bonito is in the shape of a “D.”
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The Anasazi Indians are known for building what archeologist call “great houses.” Some of the architectural
characteristics of the great houses include planned layouts, distinctive masonry, multi-story construction, and kivas
(circular subterranean chambers). Pueblo Bonito also has many large rooms with no windows that have shelves
that extend five feet out from the walls. These rooms are storage rooms or sleeping quarters.
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The oldest part of Pueblo Bonito dates back to about 850 AD. This earliest section consisted of 100 rooms
ranging from one story rooms up to three story rooms. There were also 5 kivas surrounded by the multi-story
rooms in a crescent shape. The location of Pueblo Bonito was unusual because they built it under a separated
piece of a cliff wall. This piece was called “Threatening Rock,” standing 97 feet high and weighing about 30,000
tons. The Anasazi people recognized the threat and built a supporting terrace which slowed the erosion of the
soil. The terrace worked well, because Threatening Rock did not fall until 1941.
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The culture and traditions known as Anasazi were formed around 700 AD after centuries of trading with the
Hohokam people. Their typical houses were built out of stone terraces or adobe blocks around a central plaza
with walls facing the outside for protection. The Anasazi people grew domesticated plants including maize, beans
and squash. They were a sedentary people, living in one area and eating domesticated foods. Many Anasazi
people would live in small farm houses in the summer.
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During the Basket Maker Period, the Anasazi people built granaries which became areas where towns were
formed. During the drought of 1275 many farms and towns were abandoned, except for those around the Rio
Grande River. The ones around the Rio Grande managed to survive through extensive irrigation systems. The
Spanish visited the Pueblos in 1540; the Pueblos are descendants of the Anasazi people. From that point until
present day, the Pueblo people have been ruled by the Spanish, Mexicans, and Americans. Today 22 Pueblo
communities are still intact and running.
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The ruins of Chaco Canyon were first discovered in 1849 by Lt. James Simpson during a military
expedition. Simpson's guide named Carravahal from San Juan Pueblo provided the name Pueblo Bonito, which is
Spanish for “beautiful town.” At the conclusion of his expedition, Simpson published the first description of Chaco
Canyon. Richard Wetherill, a rancher and archeologist, and George Pepper from the Museum of National History,
were the first to excavate at Pueblo Bonito. They started their excavations in 1896 and ended in 1899. When they
finished, Wetherill remained at Chaco Canyon running a trading post until he died in 1910. In the short period
Wetherill and Pepper excavated, they uncovered 190 rooms, photographing and mapping all of the major
structures in Chaco Canyon. Wetherill and Pepper contributed immensely to the early excavation of Chaco
Canyon.
UTAH
UTAH
UTAH
ANASAZI POTTERY
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We do not know how these jars were used
They are cylinder shaped, with small loops
Geometric designs painted with black lines
on white background, white slip, watery clay
Drawn by hand with a relaxed asymmetry
All have flat bottoms, some more stable
Sikyatki c. 1350 - 1700
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These people lived about 125 miles west of the
First Mesa and developed a decorative style
that was striking different from the symmetry
and basic geometric designs of the jars found
at Pueblo Bonito.
Made of bare clay and decorated with a wider
range of plant and mineral based colors.
Fired at higher temperatures because of coal is
now introduced pottery is more durable.
SIKYATKI
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Decorations combine abstract geometric
shapes with forms derived from nature: rain
clouds, stars, the sun, animals, insects,
reptiles, and birds.
The human form is rarely depicted.
See chart. -- This bowl has geometric
decorations on the exterior, but greater
attention is focused on the interior, which
seems to contain a reptile
SIKYATKI BOWL c. 1350 -1700
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This bowl has geometric decorations on the
exterior, but greater attention is focused on
the interior, which seems to contain a reptile
that slithers and spins around the inside.
But a closer look reveals a creature that is
something more than a reptile that commonly
scurries over rocks in this arid land: it wears
a three feather headdress, and its snout and
one of its toes stretch to fantastic length.
HOPI PEOPLE
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The Hopi people lived in the First Mesa area now. Their
traditions recount the destruction of the Sikyatki
community by its neighbors even before Spanish
explorers arrived about 1583.
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The meaning of the symbolism of Sikyatki pottery has
been forgotten, but it has been given new life at the end
of the 19th century by a young Hopi-Tewa potter named
Nampeyo (1860-1942) as she drew inspiration from
Sikyatki pottery designs.
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They found commercial success, from the arrival of the
railroad in Albuquerque in the 1880’s and the popularity
of Arts and Crafts movement among collectors.
Nampeyo’s work helped spark a revival in Hopi pottery
that continues today.
NAMPEYO c 1860 - 1942
NAMPEYO
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Hopi – Tewa Nation
The village of Hano on Arizona's First Mesa was established around
1700 by Tewa refugees fleeing from Spanish oppression in New
Mexico. Even though they learned many of the Hopi ways and
intermarried into that Nation, the Tewa maintained their own speech
and ceremonial practices. They became known as the Hopi-Tewa. In
1859 or 1860, Nampeyo was born to a Tewa mother and a Hopi father,
and thus began a life that would gain fame and honor as a master
potter of her people. Nampeyo became fascinated as a young child by
the pottery made by her grandmother to serve the family's needs. As
she grew, she began to make her own, and to experiment with different
looks and styles. At the age of 20, she married only to be left by her
husband because he feared that her beauty would make her seek
other men! Shortly after this disappointment, Nampeyo began to
wander in search of the remains of old pottery created by earlier
generations. An archaelogical site had been established not far from
her home, and she heard of pottery which was being uncovered in the
excavations.
Nampeyo and her new husband, Lesou, scoured the area finding all
shapes and sizes of ancient pottery shards dating back to the Anasazi.
Intrigued by the textures, color and design of these works, she began
searching for different clays and unusual ways of mixing and baking
the clay. She found ways of giving new life to the ancient designs she
found, and had soon created a totally new look in Hopi pottery. When
other potters discovered that her designs brought a higher price,
Nampeyo's art was soon copied far and wide in the territory.
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Nampeyo has been credited by many authorities as being the
artist who brought the beauty of this new Hopi pottery to the
attention of the world. She became the symbol of Hopi culture,
and was at the height of her fame from about 1901 to 1910. Her
works have been collected by the National Museum in
Washington, D.C. She left her homeland 3 times to appear with
her creations: in 1905 and 1907 she went to the Hopi House at
the Grand Canyon, and in 1910 to the U.S. Land and Irrigation
Exposition in Chicago.
Always her great supporter and helper, Lesou passed away in
1932. As she grew older, Nampeyo's eyes had begun to fail and
Lesou had been invaluable in helping her to maintain the
integrity of the art painted on her pottery. With his passing, her
daughter Fannie took up her father's work and served as
"eyes" for her mother until Nampeyo passed away in 1942. The
three other surviving daughters born to Lesou and Nampeyo all
were active in some manner with ceramic art.
One of Nampeyo's grandaughters, Daisy Hooee is credited with
introducing the art of relief settings into the exquisite creations
of the Zuni silversmiths. Even though she enjoyed sculpting in
silver, Daisy returned to the creation of pottery, and has always
signed her art "Nampeyo" in honor of her esteemed
grandmother.
Maria Montoya Martinez (1887-1980)
Jilian Martinez (1879-1943)
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Just as Nampeyo was reviving he Sikyatki Style in
her community west of Chaco Canyon, another
Pueblo potter was reviving an ancient style in her
Tewa community, one hundred miles east of Chaco.
Maria Montoya Martinez worked with her husband
Julian Martinex to create a new style based on
archaeological finds from the areas around San
Idelfonso, 15 miles north of Santa Fe, New Mexico.
English Pronunciation: "San Ill-day-fon-so"
Traditional Name: Po-woh-ge-oweenge "Where the
water cuts through"
Martinez’s Style
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Made pots using the same coil-clay
techniques that native potters had used a
thousand years earlier.
Julian then painted and fired them.
In 1909, the couple were contacted by an
archaeologist who asked them to find a way
to reproduce the style of some of the ancient
pottery that was black.
It took them 8 years of experimentation and
they finally discovered how to produce the
arresting black on black finish. c. 1939
The geometric style with contrasting matte
and gloss finishes characterizes their best
known work.
It’s Shape ….
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The jar is a study in opposing forces and
restraint.
The calculated design and natural
irregularities combine to give the form and
continual undercurrent of enger.
Its bottom is slightly rounded and, when set
on soft ground, snuggles into the earth.
Positioned on a hard surface, however, the
form balances on an invisible axis and
appears to hover.
It’s Shape ….
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Its silhouette is a combination of symmetrical
and asymmetrical:
The area of greatest volume (the pot’s belly)
is situated exactly at mid-center.
The jar is wider at the top than the bottom,
and the pot’s outline curves inward in the top
half.
Color Contrasts …
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Even the black-on-black decoration holds
hidden complications, containing a third
color- white- wherever the surface reflects
bright light.
When the light is more subdued, the
contrasts are less bold and the effect is more
mysterious, as shapes move in and out of the
shadows and negative and positive forms
trade places.
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As though to keep all of these potent
interactions in check, the abstract designs,
refined and sharp as if it was cut paper, form
a girdle around the pot’s circumference,
stretching to a point just below the belly.
Maria and Julian Martinez gained national
recognition and led to a revival of potterymaking.
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Their pottery restored their economic base.
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Today, they command the respect of worldwide collectors of fine art. Other artists,
potters and watercolor painters came to the
attention of the public and although the
Pueblo is one of the smallest in population, it
is among the best known.
Louisa Keyser (1850-1905)
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The Washoe People (about 700 miles NW of Four
Corners) and their ancestors lived as nomads
around the area of Lake Tahoe for several thousand
years.
Their way of life altered suddenly with the 1848
California Gold Rush and the discovery of silver in
the Comstock Load in 1859.
Travelers to California were followed by settlers who
populated the Washoe area around Virginia City,
Nevada.
Washoe Peoples lives change …
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The settlers cut the trees, built roads, put up
fences, and laid out ranches.
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Adjusting to the new cash economy, the
Washoe abandoned their nomadic life and
began to work for wages.
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Lake Tahoe
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Lake Tahoe in Winter
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Louisa Keyser
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For all of its upheaval, the cash-based
economy brought a new market for the
Washoe’s sophisticated basketry.
Their weaving tradition had produced baskets
fit for hunters-gathers, to be used as fish nets
and cradles for infants.
In 1895, Abe Cohn hired a young Southern
Washoe woman to produce baskets
exclusively for sale to non-native buyers.
Lousia Keyser
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Dat So La Lee, whose birth name was
"Dabuda", meaning "Young Willow"
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During her 30-year business arrangement
with Cohn, Keyser produced scores of
decorative baskets.
Most notable, Washoe Degikup (Ceremonial
baskets).
She introduced new designs and
experimented with shape and size to attract
buyers.
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Dat So La Lee primarily used willow in the
construction of her basketry.
She would usually start out with 3 rods of
willow and then weave strands around that.
Her predominate style was a flat base,
expanding out into its maximum
circumference and tapering back to a hole in
the top around the same size as the base.
This is the degikup style that she popularized
with Washoe basket weavers.
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The basket shown, a two-color degikup that
Keyser make in 1904 or 1905, was
constructed by coiling long strips of willow in
layers and then connecting the rows with
thousands of tiny stitches of thinner pieces of
willow.
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Designs in redbud (red-brown color) and
bracken fern (brown or black) were worked
into the wave in a staggered pattern.
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The basket is shaped like a slightly squashed
sphere, and opposing visual forces create a
crisp tension.
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The coil rows make the form seem to swell
outward, but the dark pattern checks the
expansion by emphasizing the vertical with
wiggling lines that appear to inch their way to
the opening at the top.
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Commercial success encouraged other
Washoe basket makers to follow Keyser’s
lead.
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Although demand for Washoe baskets
declined after 1935, Keyser helped transform
the non-native perception of Washoe
decorative basketry from utilitarian objects to
works of art.
Washoe Baskets made by Dat So La Lee
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Who has heard of the Antique’s
Roadshow?
How much are these Baskets worth?
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The largest is appraised at $25,000 to
$75,000. The higher figure if the artist is
known. A signed piece.
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So you might want to look around your
house. You never know what you might find !
Coastal South Carolina
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An important tradition of basket weaving
arrived from West Africa more than two
hundred years ago, traveling by ship across
the Atlantic with slaves.
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The decedents of those slaves still live in the
long, narrow strip of Islands that stretches
along the South Carolina and Georgia coasts.
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Coastal South Carolina
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Gullah is the name of their culture and their
Creole language.
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During the 18th and 19th centuries (1700
&1800) in the Sea Islands, (those coastal
barrier islands) rice plantation owners paid a
premium for slaves from the rice-winnowing
area of West Africa, who knew how to
manage the crop.
Gullah Culture Endures
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The marshy conditions that made the land
ideal for rice also led to the isolation that
created and then preserved the Gullah
culture.
After the Civil War, many Gullah purchased
the land they once worked for others. They
maintained their sense of separateness from
the mainland and continued to make fine
baskets.
Caesar Johnson (1872 – 1960)
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The flat basket illustrated is a rice-winnowing
tray attributed to Gullah artisan Caesar
Johnson.
These trays were used to separate out the
chaff (the fry, outer husk) from the grain of
rice after it was crushed in a mortar and
pestle. Chaff is lighter than grain and when
tossed together in a tray, the chaff floats
away on the wind.
Winnowing Tray and Other baskets
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Were made from bulrush (a type of marsh
grass) and saw palmetto of white oak all of
which grew in the area.
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The structure of the basket provides its only
decoration.
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Its design evokes the motion of the tray in
use: the spiraling coils seem to contract and
expand- the center advancing, then retreating
–while color variations and little diagonal
stitches make the disk appear to rotate.
Carl Toolak (1885 – 1945)
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Now we are travelling to Alaska to look at
Baleen Baskets.
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Traditionally, baskets were made from Birchbark and made by women.
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A new and unusual basket form was
developed in the early 20th century by male
artisans.
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Alaska
Carl Toolak
Baleen Basket c. 1940
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A non-native whaler, Charles Brower,
commissioned a basket from a local man.
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It was unusual request because the basket
was to be woven of baleen, the stiff, fibrous
plates in the mouth of the baleen whale that
filter plankton.
Baleen Whales
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The Inupiat have hunted whales for centuries.
Whales supplied food, fuel, and construction
materials, and the Inupiat wasted none of it,
including the baleen, a material that men
traditionally worked.
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Baleen is pliable and resilient, making it ideal
for sled runners, bows, rope, even shredded
for fishing line.
Baleen
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During the era of commercial whale hunting
(1858 to around 1914), Westerners used
baleen for buggy whips, umbrella ribs, and
stays for women’s corsets.
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When petroleum and plastics replaced these
whale products, commercial hunting dried up,
and with it, jobs for Inupiat workers.
Baleen Baskets
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Brower continued to commission baleen
basket weavers to give as presents to his
friends. Gradually, the demand broadened
and a new tradition was born.
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Carl Toolak was among the first of the baleen
basket weavers. This basket shows his style
from around 1940.
Baleen Baskets
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Because Baleen is too stiff to form tiny coils
that begin the basket at the center bottom,
Toolak used a starter plate of ivory
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He stitched the first strip of baleen to the
edge of the starter plate through holes drilled
around its perimeter, and finished the
separate starter piece for the lid with a knob.
Baleen Baskets
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Baleen occurs naturally in a range of shades from
light brown to black. Toolak expanded his color
range by adding a decoration of a white bird quills to
the weave.
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The body of the container is glossy and is enriched
with a pattern of white stitches grouped in twos and
threes. The pattern lines up with that of the domeshaped lid, where trios of white stitches elongate
into lines that converge toward the playful
centerpiece of the work – a carved ivory seal who
looks as though he has just popped his head above
the icy water.
Get out a piece of Notebook paper
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is time to see what you have
learned today.
Think about it ……
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All the objects that we have studied today,
how are these objects all similar?
Think and Write about it …..
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What natural materials from their
environment did the artists and craftsmen
use to create these functional containers?
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Why did the Washoe create and use mainly
baskets rather than ceramic vessels?
Think and write about it ……
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The Maria Martinez jar, the Anasazi jars, and the Sikyatki
bowl were all made in the American Southwest by the
Anasazi or their Pueblo Descendants.
What features do they have in common?
Think and Write about it ……
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How did American tourism in the Southwest
influence American Indian pottery?
Think and Write about it ……
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In the early 20th century, what did tourists
appreciate about SW pottery?
Think and Write About it ….
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Why did collectors prefer pottery that was
signed by the artist?