Language and the Study of Indigenous Art

Graduate / Professional

What role has language played in the creation of Indigenous art of the Americas, and how should language inform its art historical interpretation? The question of language’s role in art has a specific history and inflection in the study of the Indigenous Americas, which have often been described as a field without texts. Through a transhistorical series of case studies of the art of Mesoamerica, the Andes, and Native North America, we examine what fueled this vision of Indigenous art and how it intersects with colonialist and nationalist discourses, as well as counter-efforts for Indigenous storywork and language revitalization. By critically analyzing major works of scholarship from art history, anthropology, and Indigenous studies, we examine how different writers and thinkers approach and employ the relationship between verbal and material expression. Additionally, we apply language-based analysis as a method for the study of specific works of Indigenous art, while also thinking critically about this methodology’s particular resonances in light of regional histories of colonialism and nationalism. Th 1:30pm-3:25pm