Art of the Osage
Art of the Osage
Art of the Osage by Garrick Bailey and Daniel C. Swan with E. Sean StandingBear and John W. Nunley
The Osage people, who have flourished in several locations and within a
multiplicity of environments in the American Midwest, have infused their
arts with an aesthetic vigor bound to an exquisite simplicity. Art of
the Osage, the first comprehensive presentation of the art of the Osage
people, explores the interconnections among their material culture,
social organization, cosmology, aesthetics, and rituals.
This
volume draws together over two centuries' worth of Osage art, tracing
the patterns of Osage life and culture as they existed from contact to
the present. The Osage people thrived in the central Mississippi Valley
fur trade from the late seventeenth through the early nineteenth
centuries, were forcibly relocated into northern Oklahoma in the
nineteenth century, and prospered again from mineral and oil wealth in
the twentieth century.
As with other civilizations that have
balanced abundance with hardship, the Osage experience yielded a highly
refined artistic tradition, rich in meaning and complex in its
commitment to utility. Cradle boards, headdresses, riding quirts and war
clubs, beadwork and ribbon work, blankets, peyote fans, rattles,
wedding garments, and dance costumes display the range and beauty of
Osage material culture. In contrast to many other Native American
artistic traditions, Osage art has never been commercialized: artisans
have typically made items only for members of their families or other
members of the Osage community.
Although contemporary Osage art
shows direct continuity in decorative motifs and basic forms with early
historic Osage art, it is still a dynamic and evolving artistic
tradition.
Uninfluenced by external market forces, it represents one of a
declining number of true indigenous living artistic traditions. The
works illustrated here
reveal the bold yet subtle aesthetic of Osage
art, one of the most distinctive and significant Native artistic
traditions in the United States.
Hardcover, 232 pp., 140 illus., 110 in color
Saint Louis Art Museum in association with University of Washington Press
4