Shapeshifting: Transformations in Native American Art

Kramer Russell, Karen [Editor]

ISBN 10: 0300177321 / ISBN 13: 9780300177329

Published by Yale University Press, 2012

About this Item

Ex-library copy with usual markings, light cover rubbing, text is unmarked.

Seller Inventory # 240308014

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Shapeshifting: Transformations in Native American Art
• Publisher: Yale University Press
• Publication Date: 2012
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0300177321
• ISBN 13: 9780300177329
• Binding: hardcover
• Condition: Fair
• Weight: 61 ounces

About this title

Synopsis

Public perception of Native American art and culture has often been derived from misunderstandings and misinterpretations, and from images promulgated by popular culture. Typically, Native Americans are grouped as a whole and their art and culture considered part of the past rather than widely present. Shapeshifting challenges these assumptions by focusing on the objects as art rather than cultural or anthropological artifacts and on the multivalent creativity of Native American artists. The approach highlights the inventive contemporaneity that existed in all periods and continues today. More than 75 works in a wide range of media and scale are organized into four thematic groups: changing―expanding the imagination; knowing―expressing worldview; locating―exploring identity and place; and voicing―engaging the individual. The result is a paradigm shift in understanding Native American art.

Published in association with the Peabody Essex Museum

Exhibition Schedule:

Peabody Essex Museum(01/14/12 - 04/29/12) 

About the Author

Karen Kramer Russell is curator of Native American art and culture at the Peabody Essex Museum and president of the Native American Art Studies Association.