An exhibit featuring water coloring and wood carvings of the ancient ceremonies of the Native American Pueblo Indian tribes opened Sunday at the Kresge Art Museum.
“The Fine Art of Pueblo Ritual” is on loan from The Detroit Institute of Arts, and will be on display until July 26.
“We don’t have very much Native American Indian Art,” said Kresge Art Museum director Susan Bandes. “The art is from the Hopi and Zuni tribes, and both were made for non-Native Americans to understand the rituals.”
The exhibit features 32 works of art, 16 carved Kachina dolls and 16 watercolors.
The Pueblo Kachina dolls are small, wooden carved models of authentic Kachina dancers that were given to children to teach them about Kachina rituals. Kachinas are spirit beings that appear at given times throughout the seasonal year.
Some Kachinas on display include the Hopi Eototo Kachina Doll, which brings the ceremonial performance by drawing cloud symbols with cornmeal on the ground to bring about rain.
“We look to these carvings and paintings to get a feel for the experience,” said David Penney, curator of Native American art at The Detroit Institute of Arts. “The object is a representation and when the artist pulls away, the object becomes a substitution.”
The paintings are by such artists as Julian Martinez, Alfonso Roybal and Velino Shije Herrera. The works are from the early 1920s with the Kachina dolls coming some 50 years later.
“This was organized by the Detroit Institute of Arts, and is a wonderful opportunity for East Lansing to see the Kachina dolls and the Pueblo Ritual dancers,” Community Outreach Coordinator Julie Thomson said. “This exhibit is traveling to three other institutions, and we managed to be the first, to teach different aspects of society.”
The exhibit’s themes include the role of the dance ritual of the southwestern Pueblo Indians, and the development of the Kachina’s traditions and the artists who recreated them.
“This is a very important exhibit,” said Adriana Green, who was taking in the exhibit. “These are very important pieces. Native American 20th century artists were presenting a culture to a non-American audience in the 20s and 30s.”
