Pre-Columbian Art: Difference between revisions

(25 intermediate revisions by the same user not shown)

Line 85:

[https://arsartisticadventureofmankind.wordpress.com/2017/03/05/pre-columbian-art-of-mexico-the-central-mexican-plateau-tula-and-the-toltec-art/ by The Artistic Adventure of Mankind]

At the beginning of this new phase in the history of ancient Mexico, the city of Teotihuacan had been abandoned for near two centuries. According to oral traditions, the city of Tula was founded by a semi-legendary character, Ce Acatl Topiltzin, son of a barbarian leader, and a woman who came from a town with an old cultural tradition.

=====Mexico Is Ramping Up Its Efforts to Repatriate Its Lost Pre-Columbian Heritage—Spelling Trouble for the Market and Museums=====

[https://news.artnet.com/art-world/mexico-repatriate-pre-columbian-heritage-2066589 by Amah-Rose Abrams 6/2/22 artnet]

News last month that Citibanamex, Citigroup’s Mexican retail banking arm, would sell its art collection along with the bank prompted the country’s highest official to speak out.

=====Art of the Americas=====

[https://mingei.org/exhibitions/art-of-the-americas by Christine Knoke Hietbrink 16/9/17 Mingei International Museum]

_*ART OF THE AMERICAS—Pre-Columbian Art from Mingei’s Collection*_ is the most comprehensive presentation to date of the Museum’s significant holdings of objects used by people from the ancient cultures of Mexico, Central and South America. Objects featured in the exhibition straddle cultural boundaries—from the Olmec and Maya civilizations in Mexico to the Moche civilization in Peru—as well as numerous ancient traditions and cultures, including the indigenous Teuchitlán, Zoque, Huastec and western Mexican societies.

====ART FOR ETERNITY=====

[https://howardnowes.com/collections/pre-columbian-art]

Pre-Colombian Art

=====Pre-Columbian Art=====

[https://www.artsy.net/gene/pre-columbian-art by Unknown Pre-Columbian]

Including the creations of the Maya, the Aztecs, the Inca, and Native North Americans, Pre-Columbian Art is a broad category that encompasses the art of indigenous people of North, Central, and South America and the Caribbean prior to the arrival of the Spanish at the beginning of the 16th century. Figural sculptures in stone such as the Colossal Heads (900–400 BC), made by the Olmec, one of the earliest Mesoamerican civilizations, were used to honor rulers and for communication and devotion.

=====Pre-Columbian Art=====

[https://www.msmuseumart.org/exhibition/pre-columbian-art/ by Mississippi Museum of Art]

The objects displayed in the cases of the Museum’s lobby originate from ancient cultures which flourished in Peru, Mexico, and Central America prior to the arrival of Europeans. Most of the objects on view are Peruvian pre-Columbian ceramics, which were donated or loaned to the Museum by Sam Olden of Yazoo City, Mississippi. Also represented are Mesoamerican cultures, including the Mayan and the Olmec.

=====Project puts Central, South American archaeological finds in new context=====

[https://news.ku.edu/news/article/2022/01/25/project-puts-central-south-american-archaeological-finds-new-context by Rick Hellman 25/1/22 KU News]

That is what John Hoopes, University of Kansas professor of anthropology, said about two deeply researched and richly illustrated volumes that he co-wrote and co-edited detailing archaeological finds from Nicaragua down to Ecuador held in the collection of Dumbarton Oaks Museum.

=====Indigenous Art of the Americas=====

[https://www.clevelandart.org/about-collection/collection-areas/indigenous-art-americas by THE CLEVELAND ART OF MUSEUM]

In 1920, the Cleveland Museum of Art became one of the first fine arts museums to display the work of Pre-Columbian and Native North American people. The Pre-Columbian world became a strong focus after World War II and the collection today includes about 750 objects and textiles that represent most of the major ancient cultures of Central America and western South America.

=====Glossary for pre-Columbian art=====

[https://smarthistory.org/glossary-for-pre-columbian-art/ by smarthistory]

The ancestral Puebloans were an ancient culture residing in the Four Corners region. Many Pueblo people today consider themselves descendants of this culture. The ancestral Puebloans have sometimes been referred to as the Anasazi, but this term, which is a Navajo word meaning “enemy ancestors,” is considered objectionable by many modern Pueblo people.

=====Pre-Columbian Art=====

[https://www.abebooks.com/collections/sc/pre-columbian-art/4h8MeGzfjrJqTvG6T1oXVl by AbeBooks]

=====Pre-Columbian Art of Mexico, The Olmec Art and Its Diffusion=====

[https://arsartisticadventureofmankind.wordpress.com/2017/02/19/pre-columbian-art-of-mexico-the-olmec-art-and-its-diffusion/ by The Artistic Adventure of Mankind]

From the middle of the pre-Classic period (1300-800 BC), several decisive changes occurred in other regions of ancient Mexico, these marked the emergence of a much more advanced culture in the Olmec region located in the Gulf of Mexico in today’s southern Veracruz and northern Tabasco. The Olmecs were the first major civilization in Guatemala and Mexico and are considered the first Mesoamerican civilization that laid many of the foundations for the coming great pre-Columbian civilizations.

=====Mesoamerican and Pre-Columbian Art=====

[https://guides.library.ucla.edu/precolumbian-art by AUCLA Library]

Welcome to the UCLA Library guide for research on Renaissance Art. This guide is intended as a starting place for researchers, pointing to tools for finding books, scholarly articles, reviews, and other topical and collection-related information.

=====The Rise & Fall of Pre-Columbian Empires & Their Cultures=====

[https://www.thecollector.com/rise-fall-pre-columbian-empires/ by THE COLLECTOR]

Discover here the main characteristics of pre-Columbian civilizations in the American territories and colonization’s role in destroying local social-political structures.

=====The Psyche of Collecting Pre Columbian Art=====

[https://howardnowes.com/blogs/pre-columbian-art/the-psyche-of-collecting-pre-columbian-art by ART FOR ETERNITY]

The origin of the word “Museum” is traced back through the Latin to the Greek word Μουσε?ον (Mouseion), which is literally “a Temple of the Muses, the divine Patrons of the Arts.”(1) The first museums in Europe were founded in the mid to late 17th century, and can be related to the evolution of Enlightenment ideas, specifically the application of the scientific method to art. By this time, the European colonization of the New World, Africa, and Asia was in full progress, and many of the great objects of the ancient world were being brought back to Europe, primarily for their value in gold and precious jewels.

=====American Museum of Natural History. Hall of Mexico and Central America.=====

[https://data.library.amnh.org/archives-authorities/id/amnhc_4000036 by American Museum of Natural History 1898-2025]

Permanent exhibition. Opened approximately 1898. Located on Floor 4, Section 4 from approximately 1900 to 1910 and Floor 2, Section 4 from 1910 to present (1, 1898, p. 32). The Hall of Mexico and Central America at the American Museum of Natural History features the diverse art, architecture, and traditions of Mesoamerican pre-Columbian cultures through artifacts dating from 1200 BC to the early 16th century. The hall has gone through numerous rearrangements and renovations beginning in 1900, and reopening in November of that year (1, 1900, p. 19). Spinden, Clarence Hay, George Vaillant, and Gordon Ekholm (1, 1912, p. 17; 1, 1929, p. 21; 1, 1966/67, p. 29).

=====The narcotic and hallucinogenic use of tobacco in Pre-Columbian Central America

Author links open overlay panel=====

[https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/0378874183900843 by Jan G.R. Elferink 1/83 ScienceDirect]

Tobacco originates in the New World, where its use by the Pre-Columbian Indians was described by Spanish chroniclers. Studying these accounts it appears that a relatively large part of the descriptions, dealing with the use of tobacco by the Aztecs in Mexico, and on the Caribbean Isles, is devoted to the narcotic and hallucinogenic use of tobacco. In Mexico this use was mainly associated with the priesthood. It is concluded that in Pre-Columbian times tobacco possessed mind-altering properties, which were used by the indigenous population.

=====Art of the Americas Before 1300=====

[https://arthistoryteachingresources.org/lessons/art-of-the-americas-before-1300/ by AHTR]

Some of the terms you hear may include “primitive,” “savage,” “cannibalistic,” “mysterious,” and “militaristic.” Ask the students how movies and popular culture help to perpetuate stereotypes about indigenous peoples.

=====Native American Art and Architecture before 1300 CE=====

[https://brewminate.com/native-american-art-and-architecture-before-1300-ce/#google_vignette by Brewminate 27/10/25]

The New World refers to the western hemisphere, especially the Americas, which was almost entirely unknown to Europeans before the “age of discovery” beginning in the early 16th century. The Italian explorer Christopher Columbus (1451-1506) was one of the earliest and most well-known of these European explorers; the first of his four famous voyages from Spain to the Americas began in 1492.

=====First Things First...=====

[https://arthistoryteachingresources.org/lessons/mexican-muralism/ by Mexican Muralism]

The Mexican mural movement, or Mexican muralism, began as a government-funded form of public art—specifically, large-scale wall paintings in civic buildings—in the wake of the Mexican Revolution (1910–20).

=====North America before c. 1500=====

[https://smarthistory.org/americas-before-1900/north-america-to-1500/ by smarthistory]

The original inhabitants of the Americas traveled to North America from Asia.

=====Mesoamerica=====

[https://smarthistory.org/americas-before-1900/north-america-to-1500/mesoamerica/ by smarthistory]

Smarthistory® believes art has the power to transform lives and to build understanding across cultures. The brilliant histories of art belong to everyone, no matter their background. Smarthistory’s free, award-winning digital content unlocks the expertise of hundreds of leading scholars, making the history of art accessible and engaging to more people, in more places, than any other publisher.

=====Art of the Americas=====

[https://collections.carlos.emory.edu/collections/2440/art-of-the-americas by EMORY]

The museum's collection of art of the Americas consists of more than 3,300 pieces from North, Central, and South America, from ancient to contemporary art, spanning 4,000 years. For the cultures of ancient Latin America, the museum’s holdings cover three major cultural centers, Mesoamerica, Lower Central America, and the Andes and include a range of media such as textiles (including khipus, used for Inka record-keeping), ceramics, wooden sculptures, and metalwork.

=====Introduction to Art History I=====

[https://pressbooks.pub/art100/chapter/art-of-the-americas/ by PRESSBOOKS]

The Spanish conquistadores (conquerors) found that the “New World” was in fact not new at all, and that the indigenous people of Mesoamerica had established advanced civilizations with densely populated cities and towering architectural monuments such as at Teōtīhuacān, as well as advanced writing systems.

=====North America, 1000–1400 A.D.=====

[https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/ht/07/na.html by Heilbrunn]

Consolidation of populations and incipient political centralization characterize the period, particularly in the Eastern Woodlands and the Southwest. The success of food crops such as maize and beans allows for meaningful concentrations of peoples. Settlements are enlarged along local patterns, with individual centers assuming regional dominance.

=====About the American Decorative Arts Collection=====

[https://artgallery.yale.edu/research-and-learning/curatorial-areas/american-decorative-arts by YALE UNIVERSITY AT GALLERY]

The Gallery’s collection of American decorative arts ranges in date from about A.D. 1000 to the present day, with the earliest objects representing the art of Indigenous people who lived in North America before European settlement. Its particular strengths are in the colonial and early Federal periods, due in large part to generous gifts from Francis P. Garvan, B.A. 1897. Yale’s collection of early silver is noted for superior examples from New England, New York, and Philadelphia.

=====Gardner’s Art Through the Ages, 13e=====

[https://www.slideserve.com/hagen/gardner-s-art-through-the-ages-13e#google_vignette by SlideServe 20/7/14]

Chapter 14 Native Arts of the Americas Before 1300. Gardner’s Art Through the Ages, 13e. 1. Mesoamerica. Andean Region of South America. North America. Figure 14-2 Colossal head, Olmec, La Venta, Mexico, 900–400 BCE. Basalt, 9’4” high. Museo-Parque La Venta, Villahermosa.

=====Summary of Indigenous Art of the Americas=====

[https://www.theartstory.org/movement/american-indigenous-art/ by THE ART STORY]

The art of Indigenous North, Central, and South American cultures spans millennia and continents, from the walrus tusk carvings of the Arctic-based Dorset culture to the elaborate fiber art of the South American Incas. Some of these cultures have been extinct for hundreds or thousands of years. Others survive today with contemporary artists working in response to ancient creative customs. Any attempt to define Indigenous American art in the round risks reducing it to Eurocentric stereotypes. However, a number of consistent features can be picked out concerning its spiritual and social functions, and its common media and motifs, allowing us to appreciate the beauty and splendor of these living traditions.

Pre-Columbian Art: Difference between revisions

Lilly (talk | contribs)

Navigation menu

Page actions

Page actions

Personal tools

Navigation

Search

Tools

@@ Line 85: / Line 85: @@
 [https://arsartisticadventureofmankind.wordpress.com/2017/03/05/pre-columbian-art-of-mexico-the-central-mexican-plateau-tula-and-the-toltec-art/ by The Artistic Adventure of Mankind]
   At the beginning of this new phase in the history of ancient Mexico, the city of Teotihuacan had been abandoned for near two centuries. According to oral traditions, the city of Tula was founded by a semi-legendary character, Ce Acatl Topiltzin, son of a barbarian leader, and a woman who came from a town with an old cultural tradition.
+=====Mexico Is Ramping Up Its Efforts to Repatriate Its Lost Pre-Columbian Heritage—Spelling Trouble for the Market and Museums=====
+[https://news.artnet.com/art-world/mexico-repatriate-pre-columbian-heritage-2066589 by Amah-Rose Abrams 6/2/22  artnet]
+ News last month that Citibanamex, Citigroup’s Mexican retail banking arm, would sell its art collection along with the bank prompted the country’s highest official to speak out.
+=====Art of the Americas=====
+[https://mingei.org/exhibitions/art-of-the-americas by Christine Knoke Hietbrink 16/9/17 Mingei International Museum]
+ _*ART OF THE AMERICAS—Pre-Columbian Art from Mingei’s Collection*_ is the most comprehensive presentation to date of the Museum’s significant holdings of objects used by people from the ancient cultures of Mexico, Central and South America. Objects featured in the exhibition straddle cultural boundaries—from the Olmec and Maya civilizations in Mexico to the Moche civilization in Peru—as well as numerous ancient traditions and cultures, including the indigenous Teuchitlán, Zoque, Huastec and western Mexican societies.
+====ART FOR ETERNITY=====
+[https://howardnowes.com/collections/pre-columbian-art]
+ Pre-Colombian Art
+=====Pre-Columbian Art=====
+[https://www.artsy.net/gene/pre-columbian-art by Unknown Pre-Columbian]
+ Including the creations of the Maya, the Aztecs, the Inca, and Native North Americans, Pre-Columbian Art is a broad category that encompasses the art of indigenous people of North, Central, and South America and the Caribbean prior to the arrival of the Spanish at the beginning of the 16th century. Figural sculptures in stone such as the Colossal Heads (900–400 BC), made by the Olmec, one of the earliest Mesoamerican civilizations, were used to honor rulers and for communication and devotion.
+=====Pre-Columbian Art=====
+[https://www.msmuseumart.org/exhibition/pre-columbian-art/ by Mississippi Museum of Art]
+ The objects displayed in the cases of the Museum’s lobby originate from ancient cultures which flourished in Peru, Mexico, and Central America prior to the arrival of Europeans. Most of the objects on view are Peruvian pre-Columbian ceramics, which were donated or loaned to the Museum by Sam Olden of Yazoo City, Mississippi. Also represented are Mesoamerican cultures, including the Mayan and the Olmec.
+=====Project puts Central, South American archaeological finds in new context=====
+[https://news.ku.edu/news/article/2022/01/25/project-puts-central-south-american-archaeological-finds-new-context by Rick Hellman 25/1/22 KU News]
+ That is what John Hoopes, University of Kansas professor of anthropology, said about two deeply researched and richly illustrated volumes that he co-wrote and co-edited detailing archaeological finds from Nicaragua down to Ecuador held in the collection of Dumbarton Oaks Museum.
+=====Indigenous Art of the Americas=====
+[https://www.clevelandart.org/about-collection/collection-areas/indigenous-art-americas by THE CLEVELAND ART OF MUSEUM]
+ In 1920, the Cleveland Museum of Art became one of the first fine arts museums to display the work of Pre-Columbian and Native North American people. The Pre-Columbian world became a strong focus after World War II and the collection today includes about 750 objects and textiles that represent most of the major ancient cultures of Central America and western South America.
+=====Glossary for pre-Columbian art=====
+[https://smarthistory.org/glossary-for-pre-columbian-art/ by smarthistory]
+ The ancestral Puebloans were an ancient culture residing in the Four Corners region. Many Pueblo people today consider themselves descendants of this culture. The ancestral Puebloans have sometimes been referred to as the Anasazi, but this term, which is a Navajo word meaning “enemy ancestors,” is considered objectionable by many modern Pueblo people.
+=====Pre-Columbian Art=====
+[https://www.abebooks.com/collections/sc/pre-columbian-art/4h8MeGzfjrJqTvG6T1oXVl by AbeBooks]
+=====Pre-Columbian Art of Mexico, The Olmec Art and Its Diffusion=====
+[https://arsartisticadventureofmankind.wordpress.com/2017/02/19/pre-columbian-art-of-mexico-the-olmec-art-and-its-diffusion/ by The Artistic Adventure of Mankind]
+ From the middle of the pre-Classic period (1300-800 BC), several decisive changes occurred in other regions of ancient Mexico, these marked the emergence of a much more advanced culture in the Olmec region located in the Gulf of Mexico in today’s southern Veracruz and northern Tabasco. The Olmecs were the first major civilization in Guatemala and Mexico and are considered the first Mesoamerican civilization that laid many of the foundations for the coming great pre-Columbian civilizations.
+=====Mesoamerican and Pre-Columbian Art=====
+[https://guides.library.ucla.edu/precolumbian-art by AUCLA Library]
+ Welcome to the UCLA Library guide for research on Renaissance Art. This guide is intended as a starting place for researchers, pointing to tools for finding books, scholarly articles, reviews, and other topical and collection-related information.
+=====The Rise & Fall of Pre-Columbian Empires & Their Cultures=====
+[https://www.thecollector.com/rise-fall-pre-columbian-empires/ by THE COLLECTOR]
+ Discover here the main characteristics of pre-Columbian civilizations in the American territories and colonization’s role in destroying local social-political structures.
+=====The Psyche of Collecting Pre Columbian Art=====
+[https://howardnowes.com/blogs/pre-columbian-art/the-psyche-of-collecting-pre-columbian-art by ART FOR ETERNITY]
+ The origin of the word “Museum” is traced back through the Latin to the Greek word Μουσε?ον (Mouseion), which is literally “a Temple of the Muses, the divine Patrons of the Arts.”(1) The first museums in Europe were founded in the mid to late 17th century, and can be related to the evolution of Enlightenment ideas, specifically the application of the scientific method to art. By this time, the European colonization of the New World, Africa, and Asia was in full progress, and many of the great objects of the ancient world were being brought back to Europe, primarily for their value in gold and precious jewels.
+=====American Museum of Natural History. Hall of Mexico and Central America.=====
+[https://data.library.amnh.org/archives-authorities/id/amnhc_4000036 by American Museum of Natural History 1898-2025]
+ Permanent exhibition. Opened approximately 1898. Located on Floor 4, Section 4 from approximately 1900 to 1910 and Floor 2, Section 4 from 1910 to present (1, 1898, p. 32). The Hall of Mexico and Central America at the American Museum of Natural History features the diverse art, architecture, and traditions of Mesoamerican pre-Columbian cultures through artifacts dating from 1200 BC to the early 16th century. The hall has gone through numerous rearrangements and renovations beginning in 1900, and reopening in November of that year (1, 1900, p. 19). Spinden, Clarence Hay, George Vaillant, and Gordon Ekholm (1, 1912, p. 17; 1, 1929, p. 21; 1, 1966/67, p. 29).
+=====The narcotic and hallucinogenic use of tobacco in Pre-Columbian Central America
+Author links open overlay panel=====
+[https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/0378874183900843 by Jan G.R. Elferink 1/83 ScienceDirect]
+ Tobacco originates in the New World, where its use by the Pre-Columbian Indians was described by Spanish chroniclers. Studying these accounts it appears that a relatively large part of the descriptions, dealing with the use of tobacco by the Aztecs in Mexico, and on the Caribbean Isles, is devoted to the narcotic and hallucinogenic use of tobacco. In Mexico this use was mainly associated with the priesthood. It is concluded that in Pre-Columbian times tobacco possessed mind-altering properties, which were used by the indigenous population.
+=====Art of the Americas Before 1300=====
+[https://arthistoryteachingresources.org/lessons/art-of-the-americas-before-1300/ by AHTR]
+ Some of the terms you hear may include “primitive,” “savage,” “cannibalistic,” “mysterious,” and “militaristic.” Ask the students how movies and popular culture help to perpetuate stereotypes about indigenous peoples.
+=====Native American Art and Architecture before 1300 CE=====
+[https://brewminate.com/native-american-art-and-architecture-before-1300-ce/#google_vignette by Brewminate 27/10/25]
+ The New World refers to the western hemisphere, especially the Americas, which was almost entirely unknown to Europeans before the “age of discovery” beginning in the early 16th century. The Italian explorer Christopher Columbus (1451-1506) was one of the earliest and most well-known of these European explorers; the first of his four famous voyages from Spain to the Americas began in 1492.
+=====First Things First...=====
+[https://arthistoryteachingresources.org/lessons/mexican-muralism/ by Mexican Muralism]
+ The Mexican mural movement, or Mexican muralism, began as a government-funded form of public art—specifically, large-scale wall paintings in civic buildings—in the wake of the Mexican Revolution (1910–20).
+=====North America before c. 1500=====
+[https://smarthistory.org/americas-before-1900/north-america-to-1500/ by smarthistory]
+ The original inhabitants of the Americas traveled to North America from Asia.
+=====Mesoamerica=====
+[https://smarthistory.org/americas-before-1900/north-america-to-1500/mesoamerica/ by smarthistory]
+ Smarthistory® believes art has the power to transform lives and to build understanding across cultures. The brilliant histories of art belong to everyone, no matter their background. Smarthistory’s free, award-winning digital content unlocks the expertise of hundreds of leading scholars, making the history of art accessible and engaging to more people, in more places, than any other publisher.
+=====Art of the Americas=====
+[https://collections.carlos.emory.edu/collections/2440/art-of-the-americas by EMORY]
+ The museum's collection of art of the Americas consists of more than 3,300 pieces from North, Central, and South America, from ancient to contemporary art, spanning 4,000 years. For the cultures of ancient Latin America, the museum’s holdings cover three major cultural centers, Mesoamerica, Lower Central America, and the Andes and include a range of media such as textiles (including khipus, used for Inka record-keeping), ceramics, wooden sculptures, and metalwork.
+=====Introduction to Art History I=====
+[https://pressbooks.pub/art100/chapter/art-of-the-americas/ by PRESSBOOKS]
+ The Spanish conquistadores (conquerors) found that the “New World” was in fact not new at all, and that the indigenous people of Mesoamerica had established advanced civilizations with densely populated cities and towering architectural monuments such as at Teōtīhuacān, as well as advanced writing systems.
+=====North America, 1000–1400 A.D.=====
+[https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/ht/07/na.html by Heilbrunn]
+ Consolidation of populations and incipient political centralization characterize the period, particularly in the Eastern Woodlands and the Southwest. The success of food crops such as maize and beans allows for meaningful concentrations of peoples. Settlements are enlarged along local patterns, with individual centers assuming regional dominance.
+=====About the American Decorative Arts Collection=====
+[https://artgallery.yale.edu/research-and-learning/curatorial-areas/american-decorative-arts by YALE UNIVERSITY AT GALLERY]
+ The Gallery’s collection of American decorative arts ranges in date from about A.D. 1000 to the present day, with the earliest objects representing the art of Indigenous people who lived in North America before European settlement. Its particular strengths are in the colonial and early Federal periods, due in large part to generous gifts from Francis P. Garvan, B.A. 1897. Yale’s collection of early silver is noted for superior examples from New England, New York, and Philadelphia.
+=====Gardner’s Art Through the Ages, 13e=====
+[https://www.slideserve.com/hagen/gardner-s-art-through-the-ages-13e#google_vignette by SlideServe 20/7/14]
+ Chapter 14 Native Arts of the Americas Before 1300. Gardner’s Art Through the Ages, 13e. 1. Mesoamerica. Andean Region of South America. North America. Figure 14-2 Colossal head, Olmec, La Venta, Mexico, 900–400 BCE. Basalt, 9’4” high. Museo-Parque La Venta, Villahermosa.
+=====Summary of Indigenous Art of the Americas=====
+[https://www.theartstory.org/movement/american-indigenous-art/ by THE ART STORY]
+ The art of Indigenous North, Central, and South American cultures spans millennia and continents, from the walrus tusk carvings of the Arctic-based Dorset culture to the elaborate fiber art of the South American Incas. Some of these cultures have been extinct for hundreds or thousands of years. Others survive today with contemporary artists working in response to ancient creative customs. Any attempt to define Indigenous American art in the round risks reducing it to Eurocentric stereotypes. However, a number of consistent features can be picked out concerning its spiritual and social functions, and its common media and motifs, allowing us to appreciate the beauty and splendor of these living traditions.