Artistic traditions of indigenous North America are explored in a study that draws on the testimonies of oral tradition, Native American history, and North American archaeology, focusing on the artists themselves and their cultural identities. Original.

Native American arts and crafts are enjoying renewed appreciation and increasing recognition as a vital part of America's cultural heritage. This volume, a magnificent collection of full-colour photos and incisive commentary, presents the richness and celebrates the diversity of this centuries-old tradition and places it within a larger historical and social context.

In addition to the historic pieces which make up the core of traditional Native American art are works from modern-day masters, the painters and sculptors of the twentieth century.

A look at the various expressions of Indian art over the centuries, including archaeology, dress, materials, pottery, basket-making, painting and sculpture.

African Masterworks in the Detroit Institute of Arts showcases eighty-eight of the museum's finest works, representing the full range of major sub-Saharan sculptural traditions during the past three centuries: figures, masks, containers, carved stools, jewelry, and musical instruments. As noted in the introductory material, almost all African art has a functional base - each sculpture's primary justification is its effectiveness as a ritual or utilitarian object. Text accompanying each photograph describes not only the circumstances, when known, of the object's creation, but also the harmonious interplay of its aesthetic features and cultural and spiritual function. The catalogue also details the rituals surrounding the religious objects and the social importance of the secular works. Organized by region, from the western Sudan to southern Africa, the book includes essays on the history of each area, as well as maps and an extensive bibliography. Michael Kan, the curator of the collection, provides a history of the museum's African art acquisitions since 1900, and the introduction by Roy Sieber traces the evolution of Western appreciation for African art, describing also the value placed on the objects by the community from which they arose.

Shelley Niro is widely known for her ability to explore Traditional Stories, transgress boundaries, and embody the ethos of her matriarchal culture. A member of the Kanyen'kehaka (Mohawk) Nation, she uses a wide variety of media, including photography, installation, film, and painting to bring greater visibility to Indigenous women and girls. Pushing the limits of photography, Niro incorporates imagery from Traditional Stories to focus on contemporary subjects with wit, irony, and parody. Throughout her work -- in her portraiture, sculptures, landscape paintings, photography, and film and video work -- Niro challenges common preconceptions about gender, culture, and Indigenous Peoples. Shelley Niro: 500 Year Itch brings together 215 reproductions from Niro's expansive oeuvre, including work published here for the first time. Also included in this career retrospective are three major essays about Niro's work by Melissa Bennett, Greg Hill, and David W. Penney, as well as texts from seven guest artists, scholars, and curators. Shelley Niro: 500 Year Itch accompanies an international touring exhibition organized by the Art Gallery of Hamilton and the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian with the collaboration of the National Gallery of Canada.

A fully illustrated catalogue presenting new research on the objects in the exhibition will include an essay by the guest curator, David Penney, and contributions from renowned experts, offering insight into the visual and material diversity of the collection and providing a greater understanding of the social and cultural worlds from which these works came. Contributors include Janet Catherine Berlo, Professor of Visual and Cultural Studies at the University of Rochester; Bruce Bernstein, executive director of the Continuous Pathways Foundation, Pueblo of Pojoaque, New Mexico; Barbara Brotherton, the curator of Native American art at the Seattle Art Museum; Joe D. Horse Capture, associate curator at the National Museum of the American Indian; and Susan Secakuku, a Hopi curator and consultant for museums and cultural organizations.