Awards
2009 Alfred H. Barr Jr. Award for Smaller Museums, Libraries, and Collections
Phillip Earenfight, ed., A Kiowa’s Odyssey: A Sketchbook from Fort Marion
Phillip Earenfight, ed., A Kiowa’s Odyssey: A Sketchbook from Fort Marion (2007)
In what has become a substantial body of art-historical study and literature on the topic of Plains Indian ledger book art, and on the drawings of the Fort Marion prisoners in particular, A Kiowa’s Odyssey: A Sketchbook from Fort Marion (Seattle: University of Washington Press, in association with Trout Gallery, Dickinson College, 2007) stands out owing to its comprehensive evocation of historical and ethnographic context and its astute visual analysis. Although the broad story has been told in print many times before, this volume ventures far deeper into the “mirror dance” of colonialist visual expression as told through the poignant experiences and powerful artistic expressions of the artist/prisoner, Etahdleuh, amid circumstances created by his patron/jailer, Lt. Richard Henry Pratt. The heart of the book is a facsimile of the sketchbook, unique for its Westernized narrative structure, assembled in its proper order. This significant contribution to the literature of ledger book art will set the standard for future study in the field and will serve as a model for progressive collaboration among institutions with related collection material.
Jury: Teresa Carbone, Brooklyn Museum, chair; Anna Chave, Queens College and Graduate Center, City University of New York; Susan Huntington, Ohio State University; David W. Penney, Detroit Institute of Arts; and Susan Sidlauskas, Rutgers University.
2009 Alfred H. Barr Jr. Award
Read about Tim Barringer, Gillian Forrester, and Barbaro Martinez-Ruiz’s Art and Emancipation in Jamaica: Isaac Mendes Belisario and His Worlds, the winner of the 2009 Alfred H. Barr Jr. Award.
