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South Dakota Art Museum South Dakota Art Museum
Brookings, SD
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South Dakota Art Museum
1036 Medary Ave
Brookings, SD 57007
Phone
605.688.5423
Toll Free 866.805.7590
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www.southdakotaartmuseum.com

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Exhibitions:

The Legend of the White Buffalo Woman: Illustrations of Paul Goble

The Gift

Harvey Dunn: Decades

Jerry Fogg | 11 Degrees of Tatanka: Native Soul Art

Marghab Linens

Events

The Legend of the White Buffalo Woman: Illustrations of Paul Goble
April 1, 2021 - July 27, 2022

This exhibition features all seventeen Paul Goble illustrations from The Legend of the White Buffalo Woman—shown together for the first time. Published in 1998, the book relates the traditional narrative of the White Buffalo Woman, who gifted a sacred pipe to the Lakota. Also included in the exhibition are objects from Paul and Janet Goble’s personal collection, including a pipe stem and pipe bowl made by Myron Taylor (Flandreau Santee).

Copies of the book are available for reference in the exhibition gallery and for purchase in the South Dakota Art Museum Store.

The Gift
April 1, 2022 - July 31, 2022

Plan to join us April 21, 4:30 - 7 pm, for The Gift reception and curator talk with Dr. Craig Howe. Click for details

This year’s educational art exhibit from the Center for American Indian Research and Native Studies (CAIRNS), The Gift, is based on a traditional Lakotan narrative about when White Buffalo Woman, an emissary from the Pte Oyate (Buffalo Nation), gave a sacred pipe to the Itazipco Oyate, one of seven oyates of the Lakota division of the Oceti Sakowin Confederacy. In the Standing Rock Reservation in 1911, Lone Man shared a narrative, “The White Buffalo Calf Pipe (Ptehin’cala Canonpa),” about the gift, with Frances Densmore who published it in 1918. It is a wondrous account of that event.

The narrative is organized into seven passages, each of which is interpreted and illustrated by a Lakotan artist. These seven artists are the Narrative Artists for the exhibit. When Frances Densmore recorded the narrative, she also recorded Charging Thunder singing, “Song of the White Buffalo Maiden.” He, Charging Thunder, is the Narrative Musician, and his song can be heard in the exhibit and in the online version of the exhibit. There also is a Narrative Poet whose poem is in the exhibit and its online version. The creative works of these nine Lakotans constitute the Narrative section of the exhibit.

The second section of the exhibit explores the seven ceremonies ⎯ "gifts" ⎯ that Black Elk says were foretold by White Buffalo Woman. For each gift, a Lakotan musician or musical group composed a song, a Lakotan poet wrote a poem, and two Lakotan visual artists each created an artwork. These creative works constitute the Gifts section of the exhibit.

The gifts were and are:

Inikaga ⎯ Revitalizing the Ghost
Hanblecheya ⎯ Crying for a Vision
Wanaghi Yuhapi ⎯ Keeping a Spirit
Wiwanyang Wachipi ⎯ Sun Dancing
Hunka Lowanpi ⎯ Making Relatives
Ishnati Awichalowan ⎯ Preparing for W

Harvey Dunn: Decades
Through July 3, 2022

Drawn from the collection of the South Dakota Art Museum, Harvey Dunn: Decades shares a chronological selection of 4 - 5 works from all five decades of Harvey Dunn’s career. Moving clockwise around the gallery, the exhibition starts with an early drawing from 1901 - 1902 created during Dunn’s time as a student at South Dakota Agricultural College (now South Dakota State University). The exhibition ends with one of the latest and most famous works by Dunn from 1950, The Prairie is My Garden. The exhibition includes illustrations, war works, prairie paintings, landscapes, and sketches. It gives a glimpse of the evolution of Dunn’s work across time and the range and consistency of his practice.

Dunn’s work was heavily influenced by his studies under the father of American illustration, Howard Pyle. Pyle taught his students that capturing the spirit of their subjects was more important than visual depiction. He was adept at working across styles to suit the human drama of the stories he illustrated and taught his students to do the same. He used elements from a broad range of late 19th-century art movements for his illustrations, but his application of paint was more consistent. Rooted in academic traditions, Pyle used thinner layers of paint with more subdued brushwork that emphasized the clarity of scenes over the visibility of the artist’s hand. Dunn’s earliest works in illustration echo Pyle’s techniques most directly, with thin layers of paint and subdued brushwork.

Dunn’s early illustrations also mirror the imperatives of the publishing industry. Color printing in the early 20th century was expensive and low quality so black-and-white printing was often preferred. Advances in two- and three-color printing processes came in 1910 that allowed for a less expensive and more widespread use of “spot colors.” Dunn’s early illustrations leading up to the 1920s reflect the needs of the publishing industry in their use of mostly neutral color palettes, popped on occasion with a small number of 1 – 2 highlight colors.

Commercial products became more colorful in the 1920s. Spurred by a need to represent more colorful products in advertising, the publishing industry developed higher quality and less expensive four-color printing methods. Dunn’s work from the 1920s-on shows growing exploitation of the color, texture, and expressiveness of paint itself—features of paintings that higher quality reproductions could now capture better. He used a wider range of colors, applied more thickly and expressively with larger brushes and palette knives. The use of a rich, full range of colors and thick, expressive paint-handling is most obvious in many of Dunn’s prairie paintings. These works, created by Dunn for his own enjoyment often later in life, show his love of the expressive richness he could achieve with the move towards such a painterly manner.

It’s important to note that Dunn’s practice was additive, though, not subtractive. Like his teacher, he didn’t embrace a single style, movement, or way of painting to the exclusion of others at any point but was exploring and learning throughout his career. As he evolved, new tools were simply added to his ever-expanding toolbox. They were always at his fingertips; nothing discovered was left behind. Even after embracing the expressive potential of color and texture, he would return to thinner paint, subdued brushwork, or more neutral color palettes when they suited his expressions best.

What is most consistent from the earliest to latest works by Dunn is the strength and vigor of his hand, his dramatic activation of the entire picture plane, and the conviction of his artistic choices. There is no uncertainty in Dunn’s works. Nothing is overlooked. Even works that are soft or sparse in appearance are strong and activated across the entire picture plane. He practiced what he preached to his students: that nothing should be “perfunctory,” routine, or thoughtless. Choices and marks—great and small—should be considered, engaged, intentional, and confident.

Jerry Fogg | 11 Degrees of Tatanka: Native Soul Art
Through April 14, 2022

Yankton Sioux artist Jerry Fogg (Wanagi Tatanka, or Bull Ghost) uses a rich range of materials from native culture to create one-of-a-kind artworks that tell stories and teach about the history and values of his people. Fogg uses found objects in his assemblages alongside elements of his own creation such as beadwork, painting, and drawing. His combination of historical, traditional, and contemporary materials creates complex three-dimensional mixed media expressions that blend the stories of those who came before him with his own.

A selection of works in this show, 11 Degrees of Tatanka, was created by the artist to honor the American bison, or buffalo, who, through the sacrifice of his body has sustained the body and spirit of generations of Oceti Sakowin people. Giving not just food, shelter, and clothing, the body of tatanka is used to create the artworks that keep oral traditions alive and provide a bridge from the past to the present to the future. The large figurative installations that makeup 11 Degrees of Tatanka are a celebration and story of Yanktonai culture, history, and values—told through the unique and singular narrative voice of Jerry Fogg.

About the artist
Jerry Fogg is an enrolled member of the Yankton Sioux Tribe (Ihanktonwan Nakota Oyate). He was born in Los Angeles, CA, and raised near Fort Thompson, SD, on the Crow Creek Reservation. Fogg attended Flandreau Indian School in Flandreau, SD, and Dakota State College in Madison, SD. He now resides in Sioux Falls, SD. Fogg has served as an advocate for Blood Run, the Hiawatha Indian Insane Asylum, and the Pé Sla land initiative. In addition to his work as a visual artist, he is the lead singer and percussionist in the rock band Native Soul.

A self-taught artist, Fogg began pursuing his artistic passions in high school. He was inspired by the work of artists like Oscar Howe (Yankton Sioux Tribe), Donald F. Montileaux (Oglala Sioux Tribe), and others. Fogg has received numerous awards for his work, including Artist of the Year, Flandreau Indian School, Flandreau, SD; Best of Show (mixed media), United Tribes Art Expo, Bismarck, ND; Best of Show, Yankton County Open Art Competition, Yankton, SD; and Best of Show, Artists of the Plains, Sioux Falls, SD.

Marghab Linens
Ongoing

Marghab linens were made on the Island of Madeira from 1933-1980. With nearly 250 embroidery firms located on the Island, Marghab adhered to the strict guidelines of "Madeira" embroidery. This encompassed the use of 18 basic stitches and one technique. "Madeiran Stitchery" will feature each stitch and technique with examples from the Marghab Collection.

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