2026 Coeur d’Alene Art Auction31 / 80 • View Catalog •
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VERSO
Label, Philbrook Art Center, Tulsa, Oklahoma
Herakawin (Elk Woman) received the Grand Award at the 1963 Philbrook Art Center’s 18th Annual American Indian Artists Exhibition.
Describing the foundations of Sioux pictorial practice, the artist observed, “‘The painting of the truth,’ a verbal idea transposed to visual form, was the traditional Sioux Indian way of painting. A formal painting was a ceremony in which historical and biographical events were recorded on skins. Such ceremonial paintings decorated tipis and robes or were kept rolled as recorded documents and displayed at special occasions. In the ceremony, the narrator would verbally describe the event while the artist worked precisely from point to point in objectifying what was being narrated. And a selected audience witnessed the ceremony. Its validity depended on the witnessing of the truth translation and the accepted conventions of art as to technique, medium, colors, materials, and the traditional way of painting.
“The skin-painting technique was a flat two-dimensional affair. The delineating lines were simple and short – less plastic and without any shading. The painting style and content were visually exoteric for intellectual identity. The visual lines connect predetermined aesthetic points. The points were established in space during a three-day study before the ceremony by the artist without touching the painting area.
“The colors and meanings taken from nature were basically symbolic: blue sky, peace; red blood, war; yellow earth, religion; white daylight, purity; black night, evil; green growth, flora.… Colors came from earth, plants, berries, and other sources. The medium was tempera of water, glue, fats, egg, and color. The application of colors to skin surface with bone brushes were usually flat and quite linear.
“It has been my ambition to revive and preserve Sioux art, but doing this in a way to present the finer points of culture and by Sioux art means.… One criterion for my painting is to present the cultural life and activities of the Sioux Indian: dances, ceremonies, legends, lore, arts, genre.… The main purpose of this art is to effect intellectual and emotional experiences respectively by emulating the form with subject.
“The reason for using the painting medium of casein is to align my dimension-form-concept technique with the old Indian skin painting technique. Because of its fluidity in applying colors, long and quick strokes can be made with ease. It is also quick drying for continuous work.
“The method of studying the painting area to established aesthetic points has become a part of my intellectual approach to creative work. My painting is not a ceremony. After studying my painting space I immediately mark the aesthetic points and connect these with plastic lines of different degrees of curvature. And then to patterns with the final objective form.
“The straight line is a Sioux symbol meaning truth or righteousness. It also means that in the sign language. Movements in nature were interpreted as having linear meanings. The art trends of the Sioux derived from environmental influences in different localities. The curved line movement impressed the Woodland Sioux so it became a symbol for movement and unity in his designs, while the Plains Sioux, being impressed by the wide open sky and flat terrain, was geometric in design with straight lines and open spaces. These lines and their meanings are part of my artwork.… My paintings have substantiated my thoughts of giving visual form to the poetry of worded beauty and truth.… The idea and practice of individualizing the creative process, technique, and the aesthetic meaning of Indian subject have yielded a style and personal satisfaction.”
PROVENANCE
Philbrook Art Center, Tulsa, Oklahoma, 1963
Walter Pickart, Ogden Dunes, Indiana
Present owner, by descent
EXHIBITED
18th Annual American Indian Artists Exhibition, Philbrook Art Center, Tulsa, Oklahoma, 1963
LITERATURE
18th Annual American Indian Artists Exhibition, Philbrook Art Center, 1963, illustrated
Dakota Modern: The Art of Oscar Howe, National Museum of the American Indian, 2022, p. 172
