Author Description

From Publishers Weekly Contemporary American Indian arts and crafts are sometimes dismissed as a pale reflection of a once-great art form. Coe, who spent eight years crisscrossing North America, meeting Indian artists and collecting their works, disproves this viewpoint. A rich legacy of tribal tradition lives on in modern textiles, masks, carvings, jewelry and sacred objects, as revealed in the 400 artworks reproduced in this catalogue of a touring exhibition. When a Makah Indian in Washington State carves a painted box in the shape of a wolf's head, he rediscovers an age-old form and, in so doing, experiences a sense of pride and shared values. Visiting scores of tribes, Coe discovered an art community, a loose network of weavers, craft classes, singers, carvers. Examples in this revelatory volume range from a Pueblo dance-skirt decorated with mystical life symbols to a Cheyenne bird-feather fan whose iridescent colors mirror the peyote ceremony. Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.