Primarily a women's art, American Indian pottery reflects a heritage of powerful social, religious, and aesthetic values. Even now, modern American Indian women use the clay, paint, and fire of pottery making to express themselves, creating designs that range from dutifully traditional to strikingly original. This book - written in conjunction with one of the most important exhibitions of American Indian pottery ever mounted - provides an in-depth look at a unique North American art form.

A brief analysis of Indian Pottery, based on a museum exhibit prepared by the author. Pottery is neither simple nor purely utilitarian. Its development represents a conceptual leap in the history of human invention, involving the transformation of the most elemental materials of human experience--earth, water, and fire. It is both an art and a step in the process of survival. Native American peoples produced a rich diversity of vessels, and expressed their distinctive philosophies and lifestyles through its use, design, and handling. Today, archaeologists study these artifacts for clues to the behavior of the early Americans.

A noted sculptor turns her talents to poetry in a collection that explores the satisfactions and complications of being a Pueblo Indian woman in the late twentieth century

Presents a biographical dictionary profiling important Native American women, including birth and death dates, major accomplishments, and historical influence.

The nation's premier private collection of Rookwood art pottery featuring American Indian portraiture is on display at the Cincinnati Art Museum from October 2007 to January 2008. Rookwood and the American Indian: Masterpieces of American Art Pottery from the James J. Gardner Collection is a remarkable exhibition catalogue that will be of interest well beyond the exhibition because of its unique subject matter. Fifty-two pieces produced by the Rookwood Pottery Company are showcased, many accompanied by black-and-white photographs of the American Indians portrayed by the ceramic artist. In addition, the catalogue includes a brief biography of each artist as well as curators' comments about the Rookwood pottery and the Indian apparel seen in the portraits. The catalogue also presents two essays. The first, "Enduring Encounters: Cincinnatians and American Indians to 1900," by ethnologist and co-curator Susan Labry Meyn, describes American Indian activities in Cincinnati from the time of the first settlers to 1900 and relates these events to national policy, such as the 1830 Indian Removal Act. Rookwood and the American Indian, by art historian Anita J. Ellis, concentrates on Rookwood's fascination with the American Indian and the economic implications of producing that line. Rookwood and the American Indian blends anthropology with art history to reveal the relationships between the white settlers and the Native Americans in general, between Cincinnati and the American Indian in particular, and ultimately between Rookwood artists and their Indian friends.

This book features Native ceramics representing the cultures of the Andes, Mexico, the American Southwest, and the Eastern U.S. dating from 4,000 years ago to the present. These ceramics serve as narratives that record the potter's world. --Amazon.