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October 22, 2004 > Arts & Entertainment > American Indian culture focus of MFAH exhibit

American Indian culture focus of MFAH exhibit

By Christina Frangos | Thresher Editorial Staff

George Catlin and His Indian Gallery, now on display at The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, is as much a historical attestation to American Indian life in the 1830s as it is art exhibit. Catlin went West five times in the 1830s, around the time the United States government forced many American Indians who lived east of the Mississippi River to settle west of the Mississippi River, to record the lives of the Plains Indians. Although not the first to paint American Indians, Catlin was the first to feature American Indians in their native lands. He became an advocate of Plains Indian culture, and attempted to preserve it with over 500 paintings of Cherokee, Sioux, Choctaw, Creek, Osage and Comanche tribes. The exhibit features more than 100 of Catlin’s oil portraitures, supplemented by multi-media elements such as selected photographs of Catlin and his gallery, binders with timelines and notes and a viewing room with a movie about Catlin and his gallery history. A map of the United States showing locations of American Indian settlements in 1833 drawn by Catlin puts the entire exhibit into geographical perspective. Catlin’s paintings tend to focus on facial features and upper body details, reflecting his training as a portrait artist and a miniaturist. Crude, dark outlines serve to represent the lower bodies of those he portrayed. His unfinished oil portrait La-dóo-ke-a, Buffalo Bull, a Grand Pawnee Warrior (1832) exemplifies this method. A Pawnee warrior sits with a green bull painted on his chest and face and a large silver peace medal around his neck, while his lower body is outlined in brown paint and largely devoid of any detail. Catlin, in order to maximize his painting output, would spend half a day painting his sitter’s face and bust, and then rely upon memory and imagination to fill in the details. In later paintings, Catlin was more interested in details of costume and lighting. The oil painting Os-ce-o-lá, The Black Drink, a Warrior of Great Distinction (1838) depicts a Seminole wearing long beaded and metal-plated necklaces, earrings, elaborate drapery and a black-and white-feather plume. Although Catlin often sensationalized his subjects, particularly in his interpretations of scalp dances and ceremonial rituals, many of his paintings are indispensable as historical documentary art. The Western Sioux/Lakota War Dance, Sioux (1845-‘48) oil captures a sunset ceremony. Warriors dance around a fire as a semicircle of bystanders look on. The perspective draws the viewer into the painting, and creates the illusion of peering through the bushes and intruding on a deeply private and prohibited ceremony. In addition to portraits, the exhibit includes many vibrant landscapes. Buffalo Hunt under the Wolf-Skin Mask (1832-‘33) shows two Indians stealthily approaching a herd of buffalo disguised as wolves, and Buffalo Chase in Snowdrifts, Indians pursuing on Snowshoes (1832-‘33) features billowing white snowdrifts dotted with bright red buffalo blood. Catlin was also a collector of American Indian tools and folk art, and several of these objects are on display. There are lacrosse-like ball and stick game artifacts, a buffalo headdress, and a flageolet, a Pawnee flute-like instrument from the 1830s, all on display. Other relics shown include mittens from the Great Lakes/Plains region of an unknown tribe and a beautiful Sioux/Dakota cradle. These supplemental materials greatly add to the power of Catlin’s paintings. While they are fascinating artistic renderings, Catlin’s portrayals of Plains Indians also function as interpretations of an often overlooked period of U.S. history.

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