Introduction to American Indian Art

Creator

The Exposition of Indian Tribal Arts, Inc.

Creator Biography

John Sloan, Oliver Lafarge (authors)

The Exposition of Indian Tribal Arts Inc. (publisher)

Awa Tsireh (cover artist)

Frederick Webb Hodge, Herbert J. Spinden, Oliver Lafarge (editorial board)

La Farge and Son (architects, exhibition grouping, and installation)

The Diamond Press (printers)

Metropolitan Photo Engraving Co. (engravers)

Preview

Creation Date

1931

Geography

American

Culture

Native American, San Ildefonso Pueblo, Cochiti Pueblo, Apache, Mono, Hopewell, Chilkat, Diné (Navajo), Hopi Pueblo, Sioux, Zia Pueblo, Zuni, Acoma Pueblo, Tlingit, Kwakiutl, Haida, Santo Domingo, Pueblo

Medium

Exhibition Catalogue

Dimensions

11 × 8 ½ in. (27.94 × 21.59 cm)

Credit Line

Purchase by the Department of Art History, 2025

Accession Number

2025.112

References

Exposition of Indian Tribal Arts, 1930-1931, IRD_1066_0, Box: 8, Folder: 54. Directorial Correspondence: The Correspondence of Duncan Phillips, DIG-001. The Phillips Collection Archives.

Description

This exhibition catalogue was meant to accompany "the first exhibition of American Indian Art selected entirely with consideration of esthetic value,” organized by the Exposition of Tribal Arts(1). The Exposition of Tribal arts was organized as a non-profit organization. In a letter to prominent art collector Duncan Phillips, the executive secretary of the organization, Liston M. Oak, explained that the Exposition aimed to address “the fact that comparatively few white Americans realize that the Indians are today producing paintings, pottery, baskets, textiles, jewelry, beadwork and many other things of great intrinsic beauty and distinction.” Oak wrote that the exhibition would bridge “our only native art to the attention of the country at large,” and gain the “recognition and appraisal [for it] that has been accorded the primitive and folk art of every other race and country.