Ledger Art
Ledger Art is a term for Plains Indian narrative drawing or painting on paper or cloth. The term comes from the accounting ledger books that were a common source for paper for Plains Indians during the late 19th century. Ledger art evolved from hide painting.Other traditional themes such as hunting, courtship, and religious practices were common subjects. When buffalo became scarce after eradication programs encouraged by the US Federal government, Plains artists began painting and drawing on paper and cloth. An increasing supply of ledger books and other paper came from traders, government agents, missionaries, and military officers. The most celebrated ledger artists were prisoners of war at Fort Marion in St.
In 1874, in what became known as the Red River War or Buffalo War, a group of Cheyenne, Kiowa, Comanche, Arapaho, and Caddo warriors fought the US Army to protect the last free herd of buffalo and to assert their autonomy. Among Plains tribes, women traditionally paint abstract, geometrical designs; whereas, men paint representational designs.
These artists inspired the Kiowa Five, or, as they are increasingly known, the Kiowa Six, who painted with more sophisticated materials and met with international success when they exhibited their work in the 1928 International Art Congress in Prague, Czechoslovakia. Numerous contemporary Plains artists create ledger paintings today. Many seek out 19th century documents on which to paint, creating ironic juxtapositions between the printed text and the paintings.
He provided the prisoners with basic art supplies such as pencils, ink, crayons, watercolor paint, and paper. 26 of the Fort Marion prisoner actively engaged in drawing. Arapaho artist Carl Sweezy (1881-1953) and Kiowa artist Haungooah, or Silver Horn (1860-1940), both established professional careers as ledger artists.
Dreams and visions inspired ledger art just as they had inspired earlier hide paintings. Missionaries, anthropologists, and tourists eagerly collected ledger books in the late 19th century. Augustine, Florida.
Dwayne Wilcox (Oglala Lakota) uses the style of 19th Lakota painters to express humorous views of contemporary realities for Lakota people. They frequently painted personal feats in battle or hunting. These were all traditionally painted on animal hides – particularly buffalo hides.
Ledger art was primarily from the 1860s to the 1930s, but also continuing into the present. Arthur Amiotte (Oglala Lakota) builds upon the collage aspect of ledger art and combines text, photography, naturalistic painting and stylized Plains pictorial art in his work. .
Many ledger artists worked with ethnologists, by documenting shield and tipi designs, ethnobotanical information, winter counts, dance customs and regalia, and other cultural information. They were younger Cheyenne, Arapaho, and Kiowa men. Battle exploits dominated ledger art.
The men s designs were often heraldic devises or visions painted on shields, tipis, shirts, leggings, or robes. Ledger artists also documented their rapidly changing environment – portraying encroaching European-Americans and new technologies such as trains and cameras.
