Great Plains Studies, Center for
Date of this Version
Spring 2010
Citation
Great Plains Quarterly 30:3 (Spring 2010).
Abstract
Elizabeth Hutchinson's The Indian Craze examines the trend that was not merely "fad or fancy" but "a significant artistic phenomenon with lasting effects on both American art history and U.S. Indian policy." Although the origin of Native American art as art is commonly associated with the Santa Fe movement of the 1920s and 1930s, Hutchinson declares that "this cross-cultural conversation," fueled by progressive primitivism, began at least two decades earlier.
Enhanced by historical images and informed by Janet C. Berlo's anthology, The Early Years of Native American Art History (1992), The Indian Craze revives a politically charged and artistically productive era, while challenging the binarism modern/antimodern art. Hutchinson begins by methodically "unpacking the Indian corner," explaining that it was not only Indian traders who facilitated "the craze," but department stores that sold Indian-made and Indian-inspired products to middle-class Americans. The following four chapters focus on "artists, educators, and critics" who found inspiration in Native American art forms and solace in progressive primitivism.
Comments
Copyright © 2010 Center for Great Plains Studies, University of Nebraska.