A groundbreaking survey of contemporary Indigenous art and its enduring connections to the land The Land Carries Our Ancestors: Contemporary Art by Native Americans brings together works by many of today’s most boldly innovative Native American artists. Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, one of the leading artists and curators of her generation, has carefully chosen some fifty works across a diversity of practices—including weaving, beadwork, sculpture, painting, printmaking, drawing, photography, performance, and video—that share the common thread of the land. This beautifully illustrated book features both well-known and emerging artists, from G. Peter Jemison (Seneca Nation of Indians, Heron Clan) and Kay WalkingStick (Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma/European descent) to Eric-Paul Riege (Diné) and Rose B. Simpson (Pueblo of Santa Clara, New Mexico). Smith brings her personal perspective to the Native American experience and Indigenous connections to the land. In her essay, heather ahtone examines the history and practices of landscape art, shedding light on how it is both a tool for self-expression and a means to understanding the natural world. Celebrated poet and memoirist Joy Harjo pays homage to the land in her poem “Once the World Was Perfect.” Shana Bushyhead Condill discusses the themes and practices that distinguish these artworks. The Land Carries Our Ancestors: Contemporary Art by Native Americans shares new perspectives on these visionary and provocative artists while offering a timely celebration of contemporary Indigenous art. Published in association with the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC Exhibition Schedule National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC September 22, 2023–January 15, 2024 New Britain Museum of American Art, New Britain, Connecticut April 18–September 15, 2024

"Women have long been the creative force behind Native American art, yet their individual contributions have been largely unrecognized, instead treated as anonymous representations of entire cultures. 'Hearts of Our People: Native Women Artists' explores the artistic achievements of Native women and establishes their rightful place in the art world. This lavishly illustrated book, a companion to the landmark exhibition, includes works of art from antiquity to the present, made in a variety of media from textiles and beadwork to video and digital arts. It showcases more than 115 artists from the United States and Canada, spanning over one thousand years, to reveal the ingenuity and innovation fthat have always been foundational to the art of Native women."--Page 4 of cover.

In the heart of Washington, D.C., a centuries-old landscape has come alive in the twenty-first century through a re-creation of the natural environment as the region's original peoples might have known it. Unlike most landscapes that surround other museums on the National Mall, the natural environment around the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI) is itself a living exhibit, carefully created to reflect indigenous ways of thinking about the land and its uses. Abundantly illustrated, The Land Has Memory offers beautiful images of the museum's natural environment in every season as well as the uniquely designed building itself. Essays by Smithsonian staff and others involved in the museum's creation provide an examination of indigenous peoples' long and varied relationship to the land in the Americas, an account of the museum designers' efforts to reflect traditional knowledge in the creation of individual landscape elements, detailed descriptions of the 150 native plant species used, and an exploration of how the landscape changes seasonally. The Land Has Memory serves not only as an attractive and informative keepsake for museum visitors, but also as a thoughtful representation of how traditional indigenous ways of knowing can be put into practice.

How an ingenious printmaking technique became a cross-cultural phenomenon in Enlightenment Europe Driven by a growing interest in collecting and multiplying drawings, artists and amateurs in the eighteenth century sought a new technique capable of replicating the subtlety of ink, wash, and watercolor. They devised an innovative and versatile new medium—aquatint—which would spread in use across Europe within a few decades, its distinctive dark tones making possible a remarkable variety of ingenious imagery. In this illuminating book, Rena M. Hoisington traces how the aquatint technique flourished as a cross-cultural and cosmopolitan phenomenon that contributed to the rise of art publishing, connoisseurship, leisure travel, drawing instruction, and the popularity of neoclassicism. She offers new insights into sophisticated experiments by artists such as Francisco de Goya, Katharina Prestel, Paul Sandby, and Jean-Baptiste Le Prince. Marvelously illustrated with rare works from the National Gallery of Art’s collection of early aquatints, this engaging book provides a fresh look at how printmaking contributed to a vibrant exchange of information and ideas in Europe during the Enlightenment. Published in association with the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC Exhibition Schedule National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC October 24, 2021–February 21, 2022

Art for a New Understanding, an exhibition from Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art that opened in October 2018, seeks to radically expand and reposition the narrative of American art since 1950 by charting a history of the development of contemporary Indigenous art from the United States and Canada, beginning when artists moved from more regionally-based conversations and practices to national and international contemporary art contexts. This fully illustrated volume includes essays by art historians and historians and reflections by the artists included in the collection. Also included are key contemporary writings—from the 1950s onward—by artists, scholars, and critics, investigating the themes of transculturalism and pan-Indian identity, traditional practices conducted in radically new ways, displacement, forced migration, shadow histories, the role of personal mythologies as a means to reimagine the future, and much more. As both a survey of the development of Indigenous art from the 1950s to the present and a consideration of Native artists within contemporary art more broadly, Art for a New Understanding expands the definition of American art and sets the tone for future considerations of the subject. It is an essential publication for any institution or individual with an interest in contemporary Native American art, and an invaluable resource in ongoing scholarly considerations of the American contemporary art landscape at large.

Two hundred masterpieces of Indigenous art from North America, accompanied by essays on the collection and the current issues affecting Indigenous communities. Here, Now: Indigenous Arts of North America at the Denver Art Museum features two hundred of the Denver Art Museum's most notable Indigenous artworks. Aimed at both longtime fans of Indigenous arts and those coming to them for the first time, this expansive book reinterprets the collection and offers new insights into the historic and contemporary work of Indigenous artists. The artworks--covering a range of media, artistic traditions, and time periods--are organized geographically and invite readers to make connections between the artworks and the places they were produced. The book also includes contributions by Indigenous authors reflecting on the collection and the current issues that affect contemporary Indigenous communities. Contributors include John P. Lukavic, Dakota Hoska (Oglála Lakȟóta), and Christopher Patrello; with Kathleen Ash-Milby (Navajo), Susan Billy (Hopland Band of Pomo Indians), Jeffrey Chapman (White Earth Ojibwe), Jordan Poorman Cocker (Kiowa/Tongan), Jasha Lyons Echo-Hawk (Seminole/Pawnee), Nicholas Galanin (Tlingit/ Unangax̂), Joe Horse Capture (A'aniiih), Terrance Jade (Oglála Lakȟóta), Zachary R. Jones, Sascha Scott, Rose Simpson (Santa Clara), Daniel C. Swan, and Norman Vorano. The book opens with a contribution from United States Poet Laureate Joy Harjo.

This collections of writings by revered Native Americans offers timeless, meaningful lessons and thought-provoking teachings on living and learning.