Foreword

Cuno, James

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Foreword

James Cuno

Hero, Hawk, and Open Hand: American Indian Art of the Ancient Midwest and South

To all but a few individuals, the works of art featured in this book and the exhibition Hero, Hawk, and Open Hand: American Indian Art of the Ancient Midwest and South will be almost entirely unknown. Yet, as with masterpieces from more familiar ancient traditions, the objects strike us with a sense of surprise, wonderment, and puzzled interest. They appear to have a family affinity with the arts of Mesoamerica and other regions of the Americas where early societies arose and flourished, but …

Author

James Cuno

PublisherArt Institute of Chicago

PublisherYale University Press

https://doi.org/10.37862/aaeportal.00064.002

Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-14294

Foreword

To all but a few individuals, the works of art featured in this book and the exhibition Hero, Hawk, and Open Hand: American Indian Art of the Ancient Midwest and South will be almost entirely unknown. Yet, as with masterpieces from more familiar ancient traditions, the objects strike us with a sense of surprise, wonderment, and puzzled interest. They appear to have a family affinity with the arts of Mesoamerica and other regions of the Americas where early societies arose and flourished, but the imagery is subtly distinct and is also different from that of the well-known arts of nineteenth- and twentieth-century Native American peoples. There are implements of minimal shapes carved in rare and colorful stone, ceramic vessels ornamented with bold graphic designs, and sculptures of animals and composite creatures rendered in keenly observed detail, as well as magical human-animal figures, admirably modeled portraits of individuals, and images of rulers, mythical heroes, and deities, created in wood, shell, stone, and copper.

To many it will be a revelation that these evocative forms are in fact from our midwestern and southern heartlands, where hundreds of archaeological sites attest to the formation of a major branch of Amerindian civilization between 5000 B.C. and A.D. 1500. These sites dot the great river valleys from the Scioto River to the Ohio and the Tennessee; from the Illinois River down the Mississippi to the Arkansas and Red rivers; in addition to the many waterways that traverse the southern piedmont and plain and the Florida peninsula. The larger ruins are locally known and protected in state or national parks, but scores of smaller sites remain on privately owned land.

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Birdstone; Ohio, Wood County, southeast of Grand Rapids, 1500–1000 B.C.; greenstone, l. 20.8 cm; American Museum of Natural History, New York. Cat. no. 23.

The earthen cones, pyramidal platforms, geometric precincts, and animal forms of the ancient architectural monuments and settlements commanded much interest in the late eighteenth, nineteenth, and early twentieth centuries, when they were widely surveyed, mapped, and sometimes scientifically excavated—or looted—and published in handsomely illustrated volumes by the Smithsonian Institution, the American Antiquarian Society, the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, and others. During the past fifty years, archaeologists have continued explorations and have sought to protect many important sites from destruction. In addition to the archaeological literature there are abundant ethnological and historical sources from the sixteenth century to the present. Why, then, has knowledge of this early form of civilization and its art failed to make its way more decisively into our public system of education and our sense of cultural heritage?

At present we can only point to some obvious factors: the forced removal of Indian tribes beginning in the 1830s from their homelands in the Midwest and South; the doctrine of cultural assimilation and the erosion of traditional indigenous cultures; the myth of the wilderness; the rapid creation of a vast new gridded landscape of farmlands, railroads, highways, and cities answering the idea of limitless progress; and the strong tendency for archaeological information to be primarily written for a specialized academic audience. In addition, the Midwest and South held no colorful romantic allure comparable to that of the scenic Southwest, with its ancient cliff dwellings and traditional Pueblos, Navajos, and other distinctive indigenous peoples, as well as those of Hispanic descent. At the beginning of the twentieth century, the Santa Fe Railway and the Harvey Company hotels successfully opened a thriving southwestern tourism industry with strong stimulating economic effects on the indigenous arts and crafts. From that time to the present the region’s diverse history and its cultural and artistic patrimony have figured prominently in our larger cultural landscape. But things have been different in the case of the old midwestern and southern traditions. Although a highly significant exhibition, Ancient Art of the American Woodland Indians, was formed at the Detroit Institute of Arts in 1985, knowledge of this part of the indigenous cultural achievement has yet to find its place in our collective imagination.

In 1999, when Dr. Richard F. Townsend proposed the idea of the present exhibition and catalogue to James N. Wood, who was then Director and President of the Art Institute, it was with the notion of working closely with Native American cultural authorities and tribal officials, scholars from several disciplines, museum curators, and private collectors to bring diverse voices and interests together in a project of national significance. From the outset the project began to evolve in a profoundly cooperative way, with participants joining in many meetings held in tribal government offices, ceremonial grounds, museums, universities, and private homes. As the new Director and President of the Art Institute of Chicago, I am especially pleased to express my deepest thanks to everyone who has engaged in this innovative endeavor, finding ways to learn of each other’s outlooks, knowledge, and expertise, and developing the ability to work creatively together on many matters of common interest. The project has evolved in a time when the movement of cultural preservation is gathering strength across the land, when the National Museum of the American Indian has opened its new home on the Mall in Washington, D.C., and when, as in many other countries throughout the continent, we are acknowledging and valuing an older, deeper, and more complex indigenous history.

Hero, Hawk, and Open Hand: American Indian Art of the Ancient Midwest and South seeks to recover and bring to public attention the antiquity and character of a Native American aesthetic and symbolic domain, approaching deep-seated cultural themes connecting ancestral societies with tribes of today. Our primary points of reference are works of art of the highest quality, generously lent by many institutions and individuals. The imagery of these objects traces an ancient way of speculative thought, an almost visionary mode of understanding and explaining the active role of human society engaged in maintaining the order of life seen and experienced in the rhythms of the natural environment. Yet, in selecting and presenting the finest works of art, we also call attention to them not just as specimens, symbols, or admirable artifacts, but also as objects for contemplation: expressive forms whose special virtue lies in their power to affect the spirit of the individual viewer. Such exceptional pieces speak for themselves, reaching beyond cultural boundaries and historical circumstances, calling for an intuitive response that carries a sense of personal recognition, pleasure, and restoration.

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Description: Effigy Tumuli: Water Strider, Frog, and Catfish by Heizer, Michael

Michael Heizer (American, born 1944), Effigy Tumuli: Water Strider, Frog, and Catfish, 1983–85. Buffalo Rock State Park, on the Illinois River, near Ottawa, Illinois.

Finally, we are reminded that ideas explored centuries ago have also informed modern artists, from the paintings and sculptures of Barnett Newman and Ellsworth Kelly to the earthworks of Robert Smithson and Michael Heizer; their innovative syntheses deepen a dialogue in which our search for the present is also a poetic recovery of the past.

James Cuno, Director and President
The Art Institute of Chicago

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