Arthur Amiotte

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Arthur Amiotte ( Lakota language : Wanblí Ta Hócoka Washté , English: Good Eagle Center ; * 1942 in Pine Ridge Reservation , South Dakota ) is an American artist and art historian. He belongs to the Indian tribe of the Oglála Lakota and works for various museums and commissions as an advisor on the culture of the Great Plains tribes . Amiotte lives in Custer , South Dakota.

Artistic career and family background

Amiotte was a student of Oscar Howe , whose synthesis of tradition and modernity he continues with independent accents. His grandmother Christina Standing Bear and his great-grandfather Standing Bear ( Mató Nájin ), whose drawing talent he inherited, also had a significant influence . Amiotte thus comes from a family of Indian intellectuals , whose tradition he continues. He sees himself as "an ambassador on behalf of the Lakota and for the traditional arts of Native Americans".

The Lakota medicine man Pete Catches, who introduced him to spirituality and the associated ceremonies of the Lakota tradition between 1972 and 1981 , also had a great influence . The mystical experiences based on the Lakota philosophy shape Amiotte's art. His work as a whole is an expression of the Lakól wicóh'an washtélaka , the love for the Lakota traditions. Based on this conviction, Amiotte is also a promoter of the Lakota rites such as the Sun Dance ( wiwányank wacípi ). The visionary experiences during the traditional ceremonies are also reflected in his artistic works (Sun Dance scenes).

Arthur Amiotte's collage works are inspired by Ledger Art . In a witty way he demonstrates the break between the traditional and modern Lakota culture ("The Visit," 1995, Acrylic-Collage; Buffalo Bill Historical Center, Wyoming).

Title and functions

In 1964, Amiotte received a bachelor's degree in art education from Northern State College in Aberdeen / South Dakota, then a master's degree in interdisciplinary studies in anthropology , religion and the arts at the University of Montana . He was later awarded honorary doctorates from Oglala Lakota College and the University of Brandon , Canada.

As an artist and cultural advisor at the interface between modern and traditional indigenous art, he received the titles and functions as an art educator , advisor for the native cultures of the Northern Plains and associate professor for native studies at Brandon University.

As an expert and advisor, he has been appointed to numerous commissions and committees, including temporary advisor at the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian and the Presidential Advisory Council for the Performing Arts at the Kennedy Center . He is a member of the Indian Advisory Board of the Buffalo Bill Museum in Cody , Wyoming, the Board of Directors for the Native American Art Studies Association , the Council of Regents of the Institute of American Indian Arts and the United States Department of the Interior's Indian Arts and Crafts Board .

Amiotte was involved in the organization of exhibitions on the culture of the Great Plains tribes, among others at the Wheelwright Museum / Santa Fe , the Akta Lakota Museum , Chamberlain , South Dakota , the Buffalo Bill Historical Center / Cody and the Museum of the World cultures / Frankfurt am Main .

Other activities and exhibitions

Amiotte goes on numerous lecture tours at home and abroad. As a book author, he was involved in the work Illustrated History of the Arts in South Dakota in 1989 with a chapter on the culture of the Sioux .

His varied oeuvre from painting to sculpture to working with fabric is present in 26 public and around 200 private collections. His series of collages are particularly well-known, in which he pointedly depicts the tension in Lakota culture between tradition and modernity with wit and acumen ("The Visit", 1995, acrylic collage; Buffalo Bill Historical Center).

Amiotte defines his work as committed to the culture of the reserve, combined with a balancing act between yesterday and today, which is often mastered in astonishing ways; Amiotte: “ I realized that contemporary art was ignoring the whole reservation period. This had been a dynamic time. Some people were going to school in the east, to Carlisle and Hampton. (...) People were moving onto land allotments. They were familiar with print media, exposed to lots of magazines, pictures, photographs (...) Daily life was infused with this mixture of nonliterate / literate. There were new technologies (...) it seemed to me that it was more honest to deal with all this in my art, rather than to create a fake hide painting ".

Awards (selection)

  • Arts International
  • Purple Wallace Readers Digest Artists in Giverny, France
  • Getty Foundation Grant
  • Bush Leadership Fellowship (1981)
  • The South Dakota Governor's Award for Outstanding Creative Achievement in Arts
  • Lifetime Achievement Award as Artist and Scholar from the Native American Art Studies Association
  • Bush Artist Fellowship (2002).

Works (selection)

  • Arthur Amiotte: The Lakota Sun Dance - Historical and Contemporary Perspectives . In: Raymond J. DeMaillie / Douglas R. Parks (eds.): Sioux Indian Religion: Tradition and Innovation . University of Oklahoma Press, Norman 1987, ISBN 978-0806120553 (with illustrations by the artist).
  • Arthur Amiotte: Eagles Fly Over and Our Other Selves . In: DM Dooling / Paul Jordan-Smith (eds.): I Become Part of It - Sacred Dimensions in Native American Life . Parabola Books, New York 2002, ISBN 978-0930407070 .
  • Arthur Amiotte, Vic Runnels: Art & Indian children of the Dakotas: An introduction to art and other ideas . US Bureau of Indian Affairs, Aberdeen (SD) 1978.
  • Myles Libhart, Arthur Amiotte: Photographs and poems by Sioux children from the Porcupine Day School, Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, South Dakota . US Department of the Interior, Rapid City 1971.

literature

  • Janet C. Berlo: Arthur Amiotte Collages 1988-2006 . Wheelwright Museum of American Indian, Santa Fe 2006, ISBN 0962277754 .
  • Janet C. Berlo: Spirit Beings and Sun Dancers - Black Hawk's Vision of the Lakota World . George Braziller Inc., New York 2001, ISBN 978-0807614655 .
  • Rebecca Netzel: Lakota Lexicon, Part II: Regional Studies . Erwin Otto / Ulrike Kornelius, Trier 2008, ISBN 978-3868210484
  • Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of the American Indian (Ed.): This Path We Travel - Celebrations of Contemporary Native American Creativity , Fulcrum Publishing, Golden (Colorado) 1994, ISBN 978-1555912086

Individual evidence

  1. Quoted from: National Museum of the American Indian (Ed.): This Path We Travel - Celebrations of Contemporary Native American Creativity , Fulcrum Publishing, Golden (Colorado) 1994, p. 26.
  2. quoted from: Janet C. Berlo: Spirit Beings and Sun Dancers - Black Hawk's Vision of the Lakota World . George Braziller Inc., New York 2001, p. 153.