Treaty Signing at Medicine Lodge Creek is the title given to two opposing renderings by two uniquely different artists. First impressions of the artworks present an immediate reaction that the pictures are very different. In the drawing, John Taylor’s illustration appears advanced and from a professionally trained artist. Conversely, Howling Wolf’s sketch is less refined, and the artist is apparently untrained in art. Taylor and Wolf both have drawn images of the same historical event, but each from a very different perspective. Both artists make excellent presentations in their drawings, but an appropriate conclusion of aesthetic value rests with the person viewing the artwork. The title of the two art pieces identifies the purpose of the …show more content…
To begin, the most obvious point of contrast between Taylor and Wolf involves the two different styles. John Taylor and Howling Wolf created their drawings ten years apart, Taylor first then Wolf. Both artists represent Indians and white men who have gathered for a meeting. While looking at the two images of Treaty Signing at Medicine Lodge Creek, each artist uses symbols to describe what they see in different ways. Howling Wolf’s perspective of the event is from above looking down on the signing. The use crayons, pencils, and ink allowed Wolf to create a stylized, emotionally charged depiction of the scene. One can see this abstract drawing through the use of form and color. In completing his work, Wolf chose to use many hues of the color wheel incorporating mostly primary colors. This picture does not represent a visual reality, but instead, Wolf used bright colors, shapes, and forms to complete its overall abstract effect. As the eye evaluates the childlike drawing, one cannot help but consider the iconography in the portrayal of the Indians and their culture. Wolf’s use of visual images and symbols shows his profound understanding of the Indian culture. Using iconography and color, …show more content…
Taylor’s focal point centers on the group activity, giving his picture symmetry and balance. By keeping the picture compact and together an observer’s attention remains drawn into the center of the overall illustration. Accordingly, his use of the contrasting black and white indicates a representational art seeking to model the event as it might have naturally appeared. The figures are easily recognizable, and one can see a meeting is taking place. Taylor’s work certainly holds the viewers’ attention with a realistic view of the meeting. Considering the iconography, one sees Taylor showing only the most important players in his work, both white and Indian. Taylor’s drawing appears organized, structured, and detailed showing the culture of his life and times. Because Taylor depicted his characters with very similar appearances, he approached the art in an ethnocentric way, drawing from his cultural perspective. John Taylor’s ethnocentric beliefs may have contributed to the fact that he drew the Indians with weapons, with a dull appearance, and a somewhat hostile look on their faces. The fact Taylor does not illustrate the importance of the Indians in the picture shows another example of his work being ethnocentric. The composition using the black and white to draw a realistic picture brings the
She identifies that Caitlin saw it as an opportunity to show the audience the entertaining Wild West but also to assure people of the vanishing Indian threat. Some of the main work in the gallery (Portraits of Black Hawk and Osceola) were of leaders that lived east of the Mississippi, not in fact western like the Mandan’s. They were also imprisoned and not the free and wild men that Catlin was expressing. As Hight identifies the portrait of Osceola had a large impact in how his Indian paintings and gallery influenced the Indian Policy. Osceola died shortly after the portrait was drawn and was very sick while it was done. The portrait of him was depicted as a strong and healthy man when in fact he was the opposite. This supported that idea of the Vanishing Race Theory Through this observation Hight identifies that this was seen as entertainment and could make a large
Larson writes about and described events, places, and people that were visually unique and sometimes seem outlandish by using imagery .Chicago had people calling it the Black City partly due to the visual contrast to the White City, the fair. This Black City had “smoke filled caverns between buildings…”(Larson
The art work of Howling Wolf, Treaty signing at Medicine Creek Lodge and John Taylor, Treaty Signing at Medicine Creek Lodge as you can tell from the titles are both from the identical occasion. Both art works are from the same event but is portrayed by two cultures and their point of views (Sayre, Pg. 40). The drawer John Taylor was a journalist, and Howling Wolf was a Native American artist (Sayre, Pg. 40). These art works are concerning what occurred on
Douglas, Frederic. “Symbolism in Indian Art and the Difficulties of its Interpretation.” Denver: Denver Art Museum,1934.
iv-v) Works Cited Berkhoffer, Robert F. 'The White Man's Indian. Alfred A. Knopf Publishers, New York: 1978. Dowd, Frances Smardo. "Evaluating Children's Portraying Native American and Asian Cultures". Childhood Education; (68 Summer 92), pp.
The stress of this caused their once coveted friendship to wither and morph into an ill hatred. The English began a campaign of the demonization of Native Americans. The image of Native Americans was described in Red, White, & Black as friendly traders who shared a mutually beneficial relationship with one another. Evidently, a very different image started to appear when land disputes arose. The new illustration the English painted was that Native American people were “comparable to beasts” and “wild and savage people, that live like heards of deare in a forrest”. It was sudden change of heart between the two societies that supports Waterhouse’s claims of the changing relationship of the English and Native
In chapter six of her book Making the White Man 's Indian: Native Americans and Hollywood Movies, Ange Aliess explores the topic of how Western have begun to change recently. The changes that she references in the film Dances With Wolves are also present in the film Winter in the Blood as well as in the 1491s shorts, even though the 1491s are a comedy group and not a Western genre. Aleiss describes the ways in which Native Americans reacted to Native portrayals in the film Dances With Wolves, and they tended to see the film’s better sides in contrast with critics. In Winter in the Blood, there are many stereotypes that are explored in ways that make the characters seem more real and less stereotypical as the backstories are revealed, despite
...n Tan repeatedly uses this technique to emphasize the contrast between the natives and the settlers. This does not only suggest to the reader a connection the natives have with their land but that they have a greater sense of belonging.
In Drew Hayden Taylor’s essays, he creates and manipulates various tones that each appeal to a different reader, which allows for his writings to be accepted and related to by various people. Through his use of shifting tones in “What’s an Indian worth These Days” and “Why did the Indian Block the Road”, from humorous to informative to sarcasm, Drew Hayden Taylor challenges stereotypes about First Nations people.
Through various motifs, themes and mediums, the visual art of the Chicano movement addressed issues of intolerance, racism, marginalization and discrimination. By re-interpreting traditional art of Mexico, accessing the culture of their pre-Columbian ancestors, creating strong local communities, and directly addressing controversial economic and political issues, artists involved in the movement recognized the need for visual imagery that embodied the political efforts of Mexican-American immigrants and citizens who fought and continue to fight for racial and cultural acceptance, recognition and representation.
Bingham’s emblematic image touches upon settlement, trade, the Missouri and Mississippi rivers, and the issue of race. The painting can be read from left to right, adding a horizontal linear aspect. From an ominous animal chained to the prow of the flat boat, to the multiracial boy reclined on a box of some sort, to a hunchbacked elderly man propped on the stern, the viewer’s eye is able to journey in a straight line through each major element presented in the artwork, showing the progression from beast to civilization. The old man having a grim expression carries the burden of having to balance the responsibility of maintaining his business while dealing with the integration of various peoples in his community. The main purpose of this image is to reflect the commonality of interracial marriages, specifically between Native American women and the white settlers, during the time of the fur trade (Bryant). The tone
At first glance, John Taylor and Howling Wolf’s visual representations of the treaty signing at Medicine Creek Lodge appear very different from one another. It is more than apparent that the two artists have very different interpretations of the same event. This paper will visually analyze both works of art by comparing and contrasting the compositional balance, medium, and use of color, as well as how the artists narrated their views using different visual elements.
Gardner, Helen, and Fred S. Kleiner. Gardner's Art Through the Ages: The Western Perspective. N.p., 2014. Print.
The art work of Howling Wolf, Treaty signing at Medicine Creek Lodge and John Taylor, Treaty Signing at Medicine Creek Lodge as you can tell from the titles are both from the identical occasion. Both art works are from the same event but is portrayed by two cultures and their point of views (Sayre, Pg. 40). The drawer John Taylor was a journalist, and Howling Wolf was a Native American artist (Sayre, Pg. 40). These art works are concerning what occurred on October 1867 when Cheyenne, Arapaho, Comanche, Kiowa and the United States government signed a peace treaty (Sayre, Pg. 40). The treaty was signed at Medicine Lodge Creek on Arkansas River in Kansas (Sayre, Pg. 40). John Taylor’s art was created off of sketches that was completed shortly after the events (Sayre, Pg. 40). While Howling Wolf art work was created many years later, while Howling was in incarcerated (Sayre, Pg. 40). Wolf and Taylor images have similar art components while they also have different features.
Perterson, L.K., & Cullen, Cheryl. 2000. “Hindu symbolism and colour meanings dominate Indian culture and society,” in Global Graphics: Gloucester, Massachusetts:Rockpoint Publishers, pp.175-176.