Writing about an exhibit that has been on the road for a few years seems so after the fact, but Native American Picture Books of Change — on view at the Museum of Indian Arts & Culture — has come full circle and is new to me. In 2005, the exhibition premiered in a smaller version at the Governor's Gallery and then traveled to the Denver Public Library in 2007. The show is based on a book of the same title written by Rebecca C. Benes and published in 2004 by the Museum of New Mexico Press. Benes helped develop the current exhibit.

The exhibit falls short of the well-researched book, but it does just fine in what it proposes to do. Indeed, the book's introduction hints at the intent of the exhibition: "These were among the first books to contain Native-centered texts and were examples of a rare cultural atmosphere in which both non-Indian and Indian people collaborated to produce works that would benefit Indian children."

So the historical aspect of the exhibit is clear; the books are a remarkable achievement and important as documents. But additionally, the exhibit showcases artwork by a handful of young Indians who were honing their chops as illustrators in the 1920s through the 1960s: Fred Kabotie (Hopi), Velino Shije Herrera (Zia), Hoke Denetsosie (Navajo), Tonita Lujan (Taos), Allan Houser (Chiricahua Apache), and Pablita Velarde (Santa Clara). An addendum to the exhibition includes work by contemporary Native illustrators Michael Lacapa (Hopi/Tewa/White Mountain Apache) and Jonathan Warm Day (Taos).

The artwork ranges from amateurish to highly skilled, yet much of it is endearing for a variety of reasons. Kabotie and Herrera were self-taught. This accounts to some degree for Kabotie's lack of accurate perspective and his sometimes disproportionate body parts and skewed foreshortening of animals in motion and at rest. His watercolor of a little girl with her hand to her mouth kneeling on an animal skin before a painted pot — done for Elizabeth Willis DeHuff's book Five Little Katchinas (1930) — is a case in point. If the girl were to stand up, she would tower above the door directly behind her, while the painted pot is flat, looking more like a tourist's handbag than a cylindrical vessel.

Herrera's more steady hand resulted in a style that was clean and austere compared to Kabotie's work, but, graphically, everything necessary to visually augment a story line is there. Plowing the Field — a pen-and-ink drawing done for In My Mother's House, written by Ann Nolan Clark in 1941— depicts a father and son working the fields. Centrally located in the composition are two horses yoked to a plow guided by the father, followed by his young charge, who is sprinkling seeds from a small pot into the newly furrowed ground. The pueblo is seen in the distance beneath three wispy and decorative clouds. Presumably, it's based on the artist's experience as a child.

In step with Herrera's clean lines and matter-of-fact imagery, Denetsosie's work —presented in reproductions rather than originals — is endearing simply for its domestic subject matter. Family members on horseback tending to sheep, rug weaving, children communing with nature, and families preparing meals are a few examples that clearly demonstrate Indian life. Night Corral, Weaving, and Inside My Mother's Hogan are among the illustrations that Denetsosie produced for Clark's 1940 Little Herder series, books that were oriented to each of the four seasons.

Denetsosie was schooled in his art by Chicago Art Institute graduate Lloyd Kiva New, a Cherokee. Unlike Dorothy Dunn — the Chicago Art Institute graduate who taught Native artists at the Santa Fe Indian School in the 1930s and who adhered to a flat, non-European style devoid of modeling and perspective techniques — New allowed individual styles to develop.

Velarde, a student of Dunn's, was one of the first Native artists to write and illustrate her own book — Old Father, The Story Teller (1960). In a tale taken from her upbringing, she was able to convey stories from Santa Clara Pueblo in words and imagery. With only a single piece in the show Velarde is underrepresented. But the exhibit features a stunner in Old Father Telling the Creation Story, an offset color lithograph used for her book. In great detail, Velarde presents a night scene within the pueblo in which Old Father, large in scale and centrally situated, points to an arcing black-and-white rainbow made up of tribal ancestors journeying across the starry sky. Mesmerized, segregated groups of seated male and female tribal members turn their gaze to where their elder points. Included in the scene is an eagle hovering above the elder's head and other life-forms that play into the pueblo's array of symbolic creatures.

Also a student of Dunn, and mentored by muralist Olaf Nordmark during a brief stay in Washington, D.C., Houser is well represented in this exhibition. Dunn's influence is evident in Houser's flat style and uniformly drawn contour lines that define shapes and reference volume. A particular piece that stood out for me was more about the desert environment than about Pueblo life. In fact, it is strictly a landscape. Dust Devils — a small tempera painting on paper and an illustration in Clark's The Desert People (1962) — shows two columnar whirlwinds dancing among scattered saguaros and sagebrush in front of a nondescript mountain range. Houser's depiction of such a rarely seen phenomenon is whimsical given his turquoise-and-carnelian color scheme and the stylized debris emitted from the inverted, swirling cones.

My immediate impression of Picture Books was reserved, in that it's located in what is essentially a corridor leading to other galleries — a space not conducive to featuring a self-contained exhibit. But that feeling was quickly dispelled because of the way the display was contrived.

I commend the exhibit designers for transforming the hallway into a viable viewing space and tip my hat to whoever devised the two enormous books that stand neck-high and function as cool props that mark the pathway through the exhibit. Kids will love these giant tomes — perhaps so much that they might be compelled to read, if not write and illustrate, their own stories. That in itself is a reason to see this show with the entire family.

details
Native American Picture Books of Change
Through Jan. 2, 2010
Museum of Indian Arts & Culture, 710 Camino Lejo on Museum Hill
By museum admission, 476-1269