Native Moderns: American Indian Painting, 1940–1960 (review)

Read this book partly because it is an insightful study of modern American Indian painting but also because it illuminates our understanding of all twentieth-century art. With the author’s exhaustive and thorough research you will grow to understand how individual Native American artists have been affected by their participation in the art world. Anthes traces the history of Native American art from an early record of the visible world to a symbol of the primitive and myth and finally to artist action based on individual feeling and intuition. The art world’s emphasis on the expression of the singular personality of the artist has made it impossible for American Indians to keep personal or ethnic history as a basis for their art and be recognized except in Indian-only exhibitions. Don’t expect Native Moderns to be a survey of Indian painting of the modern era, though both Indian and non-Indian artists are mentioned and their paintings are included in the plates. The Indian artists are mentioned as examples of how history affects art production and personal and tribal identity. Instead of a survey like Song from the Earth: American Indian Painting by Jamake Highwater, Native Moderns covers modern Indian policy and the experience of Indian artists as a result of that policy in the twentieth century. This history affected the identity of Indians and their style of art. Starting in World War II with immigrant modern artist Barnett New-man and ending with well-known modernist Native American artist Fritz Scholder, the book draws the reader into what it was to be an Indian artist forced to make difficult choices.

The artists in the book are presented as examples. Most were educated in Indian schools and suffered from separation from their people and loss of their traditions. Most maintained connections to their place of origin and returned there eventually. Most Indian artists were caught in a dilemma. During the 1950s there was a movement to detribalize Native Americans and mainstream Indians into American culture. Indians were encouraged to keep their ceremonial secrets from outsiders as a way to protect and preserve Indian traditions. Ironically, breaking this tradition was also justifiable as a way to gain support from outsiders to preserve a quickly disappearing culture. At this time, Indian artists reveal through visual art secret traditions to get support from non-Indians to help preserve Indian culture, to gain artistic recognition, and to make a living. Both the termination policy of the U.S. government and the attitude of the New York art critics made it impossible for Indians to be recognized both as Indians and as American modern artists for most of the twentieth century. The double standard for gender and race in the art world kept “outsider artists” from being successful.

Two non–American Indian artists are included in Native Moderns. The first, American Yeffe Kimball, identified herself as an Indian in order to promote her career as a woman artist. As an outsider artist she too would never have been recognized by the modernists and critics, who mostly noticed white males. The second, Barnett Newman, a mainstream modern artist, was included by the author because Newman’s writing cited Native American art as a resource and model for American modernism.

The dilemma for Indian artists was whether to become mainstream American artists and/or remain faithful to Indian traditions in their images. Many were misunderstood and had their work misinterpreted by writers who identified the artists’ inspiration as Mexican or as an abstraction from the American modernist movement. Anthes feels that Indian artists came to their style through their own Indian cultural route, not as a result of either modernism or any other influence. Some of the Indian artists mentioned had dual ethnicity and were bridging two cultures. The author’s viewpoint is clear in his closing statement: “But as we have seen, Native American artists were already moderns.” Indian artists did not have to be influenced by cultures...