Art of the American Southwest is the visual arts of the Southwestern United States. This region encompasses Arizona, New Mexico, and parts of California, Colorado, Nevada, Texas, and Utah.Southwestern United States Free Dictionary. Retrieved January 18, 2012. These arts include architecture, ceramics, drawing, filmmaking, painting, photography, sculpture, printmaking, and other media, ranging from the ancient past to the contemporary arts of the present day.

Historic influences

Ancient Puebloan people The Ancestral Puebloans, or Anasazi (up to 1400 CE) are the ancestors of today's Pueblo tribes. Their culture formed in the American Southwest after the cultivation of corn was introduced from Mesoamerica about 4,000 years ago. People of this region developed an agrarian lifestyle and lived in sedentary towns.Pritzker, pp. 3-4

Common early pottery included corrugated gray ware pottery and decorated black-on-white pottery.Pueblo Indian History. Crow Canyon Archaeological Center. Retrieved 10-9-2011. Corrugated pottery was made from coils of clay wound into the desired shape and the clay is pinched, which created the corrugated texture.Ancestral Puebloan Chronology (teaching aid). Mesa Verde National Park, National Park Service. Retrieved 10-16-2011."Ancestral Hopi Pottery." Arizona State Museum. 2007 (retrieved 14 Aug 2010) White on black evolved as a decorative pottery and was often used as a trade good for food.Stuart, David E.; Moczygemba-McKinsey, Susan B. (2000) Anasazi America: Seventeen Centuries on the Road from Center Place. University of New Mexico Press. p. 57. . Sikyátki, a former Hopi village in Arizona inhabited from the 14th through the 16th centuries, is the source of polychrome pottery.Ancestral Hopi Pottery. Arizona State Museum, University of Arizona. Retrieved January 17, 2012. Around 300 CE the Hohokam culture developed in Arizona.Pritzker, p. 4 They are the ancestors of the Tohono O'odham and Akimel O'odham or Pima tribes.Waldman, Carl. (2006) . Encyclopedia of Native American tribes. New York: Infobase Publishing. pp. 2-3. . The Mimbres, a subgroup of the Mogollon culture, are especially notable for the narrative paintings on their pottery.Brody et al, p. 9.

Turquoise, jet, and spiny oyster shell have been traditionally used by Ancestral Pueblo for jewelry, and they developed sophisticated inlay techniques centuries ago. The Ancestral Puebloans (Anasazi) of the Chaco Canyon and surrounding region are believed to have prospered greatly from their production and trading of turquoise objects.

Native American nations

Within the last millennium, Athabaskan peoples emigrated from northern Canada in the southwest. These include the Navajo and Apache. Sandpainting is an aspect of Navajo healing ceremonies that inspired an art form. Navajos learned to weave on upright looms from Pueblos and wove blankets that were eagerly collected by Great Basin and Plains tribes in the 18th and 19th centuries. After the introduction of the railroad in the 1880s, imported blankets became plentiful and inexpensive, so Navajo weavers switched to producing rugs for trade.

Pueblo, Navajo and Apache tribes cherished turquoise for its amuletic use; the latter tribe believe the stone to afford the archer dead aim. Among these peoples turquoise was used in mosaic inlay, in sculptural works, and was fashioned into toroidal beads and freeform pendants. The distinctive silver jewelry produced by the Navajo and other Southwestern Native American tribes today is a rather modern development, thought to date from c. 1880 as a result of European influences.

Colonial Spanish With a need to be self-sufficient, many Hispanic people woodworking, weaving, tinsmith, farming and leather work skills to create the furniture and furnishings for their homes.

Anglo-Americans Ancient artistic traditions have been manifested in native craft for generations when Europeans began to settle in the American Southwest; an important acknowledgement for understanding the inherent aesthetic allure of this area to the Anglo-American artists.

Integration of influences Silverworking was adopted by native Southwest artists beginning in the 1850s, when Mexican silversmiths had to trade their silverwork for cattle from the Navajo. The Zuni admired the silver jewelry made by the Navajos, such as Atsidi Sani (Old Smith), so they began trading livestock for instruction in working silver. By 1890, the Zuni had taught the Hopi how to make silver jewelry.Hewett, Edgar. Native Peoples of the American Southwest. 1968

Native Americans were also influenced by the introduction of paintings made with oil and watercolor on canvas, where they traditionally painted objects such as hides or inside buildings, such as on the walls of a kiva. The Native American paintings provided artwork that was realistic of the Native American lifestyle in contrast to the work of Anglo-Americans romantic depictions. Traditional design elements were formalized at the Studio at the Santa Fe Indian School, defining flatstyle Native American art. The Studio was developed in 1932 by Dorothy Dunn, who taught there until 1932, and was replaced by Geronima Cruz Montoya (Ohkay Owingeh), who taught art at the Studio until its closing in 1962, when the Institute of American Indian Arts was established.Bernstein and Rushing, p. 14

Following World War I, the completion of the Santa Fe Railroad enabled American settlers to travel across the west, as far as the California coast. New artists’ colonies started growing up around Santa Fe and Taos, the artists' primary subject matter being the native people and landscapes of the Southwest. Images of the Southwest became a popular form of advertising, used most significantly by the Santa Fe Railroad to entice settlers to come west and enjoy the “unsullied landscapes”. Walter Ufer, Bert Geer Phillips, E. Irving Couse, William Henry Jackson, Tom Lea, and Georgia O'Keeffe are some of the more prolific artists of the Southwest.

Basketry

Native Americans, including those of the American Southwest, traditionally make their baskets from the materials available locally.

Pottery

Acoma pottery Acoma pottery, beginning over 1,000 years ago, traditional designs include thunderbirds, geometric patterns, and rainbows.David Zax (2008). "Ancient Citadel". Travel. Smithsonian Magazine. Retrieved January 18, 2012. The pottery is made of fine local clay found on the pueblo to create the distinctively thin-walled pottery. The pottery is made in white and black and polychrome colors. Designs are pressed into all-white pottery with a fingernail or tool.Casey, Robert. L. (1993) . High Journey to the Southwest. The Globe Pequot Press. p. 298. . Potters from Acoma Pueblo during the 1950s include Marie Z. Chino and Lucy M. Lewis. Vera Chino Ely, the daughter of Marie Chino, is also a well-reputed potter of Acoma pottery.

Hopi pottery In historical times, Hopi created ollas, dough bowls, and food bowls of different sizes for daily use, but they also made more elaborate ceremonial mugs, jugs, ladles, seed jars and those vessels for ritual use, and these were usually finished with polished surfaces and decorated with black painted designs. Creating pottery is a social activity for the Hopi tribe. Potters who work closely together share production skills and marketing knowledge. Children are encouraged to play with clay, but in adulthood the decision to take up pottery is a sign of "strength, maturity and patience." At the turn of the 20th century, Hopi potter Nampeyo revived Sikyatki-style polychrome pottery from the 14th to 17th centuries.

In the late 20th century, Hopi-Tewa potter Paqua Naha from First Mesa, followed by her daughter Joy Navasie, Helen Naha "Feather Woman", and their children achieved international recognition for their traditionally made Hopi pottery.Pecina 163

Santa Clara pottery Santa Clara pottery is distinguished for its red polychrome and shiny black pottery.Santa Clara Pueblo. National Park Service. Retrieved January 16, 2012. It is also known for the having designs carved into the clay when the piece has dried to "leather hard."

San Ildefonso pottery San Ildefonso pottery in noted for the black-on-black pottery brought to the San Ildefonso Pueblo in the early 20th century by Maria Martinez and her husband Julian Martinez when they rediscovered how to make the pottery.

Taos pottery Juanita Suazo Dubray, a lifelong resident of Taos Pueblo, is a Native American potter who makes micaceous pottery, upholding the tradition of her mother and their ancestors. Dubray added an element of sculptural relief with icons of corn, turtles, lizards, and kiva steps in relief.Suazo Dubray. Through the Eyes of the Pot, Artists. L. D. Holmes Museum.Anderson, D. (1999). "All That Glitters: The Emergence of Native American Micaceous Art Pottery in Northern New Mexico." School of American Research Press. p. 62.

Zuni pottery Zuni pottery is made from local clay which receives a ritualistic vow of thanks before it is gathered. It is painted with home-made organic dyes, using a traditional yucca brush. The intended function of the pottery dictates its shape and images painted on its surface. Firing of the pottery was usually a community enterprise, silence or communication in low voices was considered essential in order to maintain the original "voice" of the "being" of the clay, and the purpose of the end product.Morrell, Virginia. "The Zuni Way ." Smithsonian Magazine. April 2007 (retrieved 13 Feb 2011)Jesse Green, ed. Zuni: Selected Writings of Frank Hamilton Cushing. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1979. Sales of pottery and traditional arts provide a major source of income for many Zuni people today. An artisan may be the sole financial support for her immediate family as well as others.

Textiles

Dr. Joe Ben Wheat examined thousands of 19th-century textiles,Wheat, J.B. (2003) Blanket Weaving in the Southwest, edited by Ann Lane Hedlund, Tucson, AZ, University of Arizona Press. with the goal of establishing "a key for southwestern textiles identification based on the traits that distinguish the Pueblo, Navajo, and Spanish American blanket weaving traditions and provide a better way of identifying and dating pieces of unknown origin.” The years of research resulted in the "groundbreaking" publication of "Blanket Weavings in the Southwest".University of Arizona. The Books. The University of Arizona Press. Tucson Arizona. Retrieved March 31.

Navajo weaving

Navajo textiles, such as handwoven blankets and rugs, are highly regarded, valued for over 150 years, and an important element of the Navajo economy.Mauer, Evan M. Maurer. (1986). "Determining Quality in Native American Art" in The Arts of the North American Indian: Native Traditions in Evolution. New York: Philbrook Art Center. p. 150. Navajo textiles were originally utilitarian blankets for use as cloaks, dresses, saddle blankets, and similar purposes. Toward the end of the 19th century, weavers began to make rugs for tourism and export. Typical Navajo textiles have strong geometric patterns. They are a flat tapestry-woven textile produced in a fashion similar to kilims of Eastern Europe and Western Asia, but the warp is one continuous length of yarn and does not extend beyond the weaving as fringe.

Hopi weaving

Figures

Bultos Bultos are three-dimensional, hand-carved religious figures, often of saints, introduced by the Spanish-Mexicans.Durham, Michael S. (1990). The Smithsonian Guide to Historic American: The Desert States. New York: Steart, Tabori & Chang. p. 164. .Casey, Robert. L. (1993) . High Journey to the Southwest. The Globe Pequot Press. p. 419. .

Fetishes