Visual arts by indigenous peoples of the Americas

Native American culture is so diverse that as a result, the art of the indigenous people of North America also varies greatly, depending on tribe weaved baskets, cave drawings, totem poles, and location. elaborately weavings, Kachina dolls, eagle feather headdress, soft moccasins, painted teepees and highly-detailed beadwork. Art was the explanation of tribal origin, a physical embodiment of myths and magic as well as a means of identification Decorated pottery and
One of the defining characteristics of American Indian art across the ages remains the artists' use of objects sourced from the natural world to create their work. Plants provide the material needed to create dyes for coloring rugs and weavings. Artists shape baskets of reeds and other grasses. Quills, skins, and feathers find new life in elaborately crafted ceremonial and daily wear.

Southwest
Are best known for kachina dolls of the Hopi; sandpaintings of the Navajo; pottery, particularly by Pueblo Indian artists; woven blankets and rugs predominantly by the Navajos; and many different styles of fine basketry and jewelry particularly in silver and turqouise. Art is made up of straight lines, squares, and other geometric shapes. Earthy colors

Kachina dolls

 Kachinas are spirits or personifications of things in the real world. A kachina can represent anything in the natural world or cosmos, from a revered ancestor to an element, a location, a quality, a natural phenomenon, or a concept. There are more than 400 different kachinas in Hopi and Pueblo cultures. The local pantheon of kachinas varies in each pueblo community; there may be kachinas for the sun, stars, thunderstorms, wind, corn, insects, and many other concepts. Kachinas are understood as having humanlike relationships; they may have uncles, sisters, and grandmothers, and may marry and have children. Although not worshipped, each is viewed as a powerful being who, if given veneration and respect, can use their particular power for human good, bringing rainfall, healing, fertility, or protection.

Sand Paintings

Pottery

Rugs

Baskets

Jewelry

Hopi

Pacific Northwest
Northwest Indian artists are best known for include basketry (including distinctive basket hats and capes), intricate woodcarving (especially ceremonial masks and majestic totem poles), and weavings (including the unusual chilkat blankets) Brighter, less earthy colors. Red and Black Curved more organic shapes. Birds, Ocean fish

Baskets

Masks

Wood Carvings

Totem Poles

Chilkat blankets

Great Plains and Midwest

Men painted narrative (story telling), pictorial designs recording personal exploits or visions. They also painted pictographic historical calendars known as Winter Counts. Women painted geometric designs on tanned robes and rawhide parfleches, which sometimes served as maps. During the Reservation Era of the late 19th century, buffalo herds were systematically destroyed by non-native hunters. Due to the scarcity of hides, Plains artists adopted new painting surfaces, such as muslin or paper, giving birth to Ledger Art, so named for the ubiquitous ledger books used by Plains artists. Buffalo teepees

Not only did the Plains Indian decorate his home but also his person, with manicured hair, facial painting, and clothing enhancement.

Winter Counts
Most winter counts have a single pictograph symbolizing each year, based on the most memorable event of that year

Parfleche a Native American Rawhide bag

Ledger Art

War bonnet

Minnesota Plains and Eastern Woodlands

Pipestone National Monument

Eastern Woodland

 Warriors Art consisted of Beadwork, painting, mounds weapons. Art is simple and geometric. Not as earthy Bears longhouses

Cahokia Mounds Illinois

Woodhenge

Effigy Mounds Iowa

Bear mound

Long houses

Wampum

Form of money for trading with the white men

Eskimo (Inuit)
Art styles of the area favored carving in the round, decoration by incising, and a modest amount of inlay. Since the basic material was often a tusk or a tooth, these objects partially dictated the form, which was embellished after carving by incising or engraving. Black pigment, from charcoal fires, was rubbed into the lines for emphasis.

Mesoamerican Art

 Maya, Olmec, Teotihuacan and Toltecs Mesoamerican art was created to serve religious or political needs, rather than art for arts sake. It is strongly based on nature, the surrounding political reality and the gods Scary subjects, megalith sculptures, serpents, curves, and pyramid like structures

Teotihuacan Pyramid Like Structure

Olmec Head Megalyth Structure

Scary