Studies in American Indian Art

Like few of his contemporaries, Norman Feder (1930–1995) has helped to shape the study of Native American art. In a mixed career spanning four decades as hobbyist craftsman, author, curator, and editor, he contributed to the theoretical and methodological foundation of a discipline about to emerge from the narrow interests of museum anthropologists and devoted amateurs into the public prominence of an up-scale art market and of widespread appreciation. Feder entered the field without the benefit of an academic training, but with a profound first-hand knowledge of the importance of techniques for an understanding of Native American visual forms of expression. Among his lasting contributions are the explicit recognition of the historical nature of these art forms, of the resulting significance of documented collections and information contained in early drawings and photographs for a placement of artifact styles in time and space and of the usefulness of studies of artifact types or genres in Native American art. He was also among the first to bring the resources of European museums to the attention of an American audience.

In this volume, a group of American, Canadian, and European anthropologists, art historians, and collectors explore topics relating to Feder's far-ranging interests in Native American art. The contributions of these prominent experts deal with works from all major regions, time periods, and traditional forms of expression of Native North America, discuss a wide spectrum of questions posed by current research, and reflect Norman Feder's direct or indirect influence on theory and methodology. Introductory essays focus on Feder's background and achievements. The book is both a tribute to Feder's seminal role in the study of American Indian art and an illustration of its interdisciplinary nature.

Table of Contents

Arthur C. Einhorn: Norman Feder as Hobbyist, Cultural Scientist, and Social Mover

Joyce Herold: Norman Feder’s Case Studies in Authenticity: Notes on Indian Artifakes of the 1950s and 1960s

Tilly Laskey: Norman Feder at the Denver Art Museum. A Chronology, 1958–1973

Roanne P. Goldfein: Norman Feder and American Indian Art Magazine, 1977–1995

Christian F. Feest: Norman Feder and American Indian Art Studies

Norman Feder: A Bibliography. Compiled by Christian F. Feest

Steven C. Brown: Norman Feder and the Central Coast Salish Art Style

Colin F. Taylor: The Crow Ceremonial Shirt: History and Development of Styles, 1800–1900

Bill Holm: Quill-Wrapped Horsehair: Two Rare Quilling Techniques

Arni Brownstone: Seven War-Exploit Paintings: A Search for their Origins

Imre Nagy: The Cosmic Turtle. A Unique Representation of Cheyenne Cosmological Beliefs

Molly Lee: A Piece of the Past. Alaskan Eskimo Art and the Nome Gold Rush, 1895–1915

Marvin Cohodas: Reading Pictorial Imagery in Washoe Basketry

Ruth B. Phillips: Quilled Bark from the Central Great Lakes: A Transcultural History

Sally McLendon: California Feather Blankets: Objects of Wealth and Status in Two Nineteenth-Century Worlds

William C. Sturtevant: Documenting the Speyer Collection]

Christian F. Feest and Sylvia S. Kasprycki: Comparative Evidence, Critical Reasoning, and the Identification of Styles: A (Knife) Case in Point