: "Art of the Osage," on view at the Saint Louis Art Museum through
August 8, gathers together more than 100 objects made between
1750 and the present day by the American Indian people known as
the Osage.
Although artist George Catlin sketched the tribe's chief Clermont
in 1834, the material culture of the Osage remains little known
among art historians today. This Native American group never made
art for art's sake; instead, they attempted to make all useful
objects beautiful. The unfamiliarity of the outside world with
their creations results, in part, from the fact that - due to a
series of fortunate economic circumstances - the Osage were never
constrained to make goods for sale to settlers or tourists.
Dr John Nunley, the Morton D. May curator of the arts of Africa,
Oceania, and the Americas at the Saint Louis Art Museum, spent
six years organizing the exhibition with the help of Osage tribal
authorities. "This is really the first major exhibition on Osage
art," he explains. "It is true that you hear more about the
Mandan or the Oglala or other Plains Indians. But, when the Osage
were at the height of their commercialization of the fur trade,
they occupied an area that included Kansas, Missouri, Arkansas
and Oklahoma. They processed bison in the plains but also lived
in the eastern woodlands and on the prairie; they were involved
in three different environments. This is another reason why
people interested couldn't quite peg the Osage in any one place."
The exhibit features a collection of objects with a "purposeful
beauty characteristic" that spans a history of more than 250
years. Borrowed from a variety of prestigious sources, including
the Osage Tribal Museum, the "Art of the Osage" project
chronicles the history, religion and society of the tribe.
