Becoming Mary Sully

"The moment to savor [Mary Sullys] semi-abstract celebrity portraits (Albert Einstein, ZaSu Pitts), which combine a modernist spirit and Native American aesthetics, has arrived." * New York Times * "In his evaluation of Sully and her work, Deloria leaves no stone unturned. What results is a compelling modelgrounded in comprehensive historical and cultural analysesfor evaluating the works of women artists disconnected from larger art movements. In the case of Mary Sully, our understanding of her art and life reveals a unique approach by a bicultural woman that rejects limited views on American Indian art in favor of one grounded in an imagined American Indian futurity that should most certainly lead us to question our understanding of American modern art as a whole." * Womans Art Journal * "A significant contribution to a growing body of literature recognizing the roles of women in creating an Indigenous futurity rooted in self-representation and self-determination. The cultural work of women like Mary Sully challenges narratives that place Indigenous people outside of, and in opposition to, the modern world." * Momus * "Becoming Mary Sully introduces the stunning and original work of a heretofore unknown artist." * Artblog * "Phil Delorias Becoming Mary Sully endows what may seem to be a modest group of documents with radical potential. Moving through biography, formal analysis, art criticism, ethnographic and psychological theory, and Oceti Sakowin history and values, he offers an extended argument for seeing the work of this self-taught artist as engaging modernity from a deeply Indigenous perspective." * Native American and Indigenous Studies Journal * "In Delorias fascinating study of Sullys previously unknown work, a project both deeply personal and highly attentive to broader historical and artistic currents, he locates a new narrative of Indian futurity and survivance in the realm of modernist aesthetics." * Western Historical Quarterly * "Sullys sensitivity to her cultural influences and history is acute and visionary, and Delorias analysis and scholarship communicates his deep respect for her vision. Emerging from potential obscurity, Sullys work deepens cultural perceptions of American Indian abstraction." * Hyperallergic * "A historian by trade, Philip Deloria's impressive first venture into art history continues his preoccupation with how Indigenous presence throughout American history undermines codified myths of primitivism and disappearance." * Panorama: Journal of the Association of Historians of American Art *

Philip J. Deloria (Dakota descent) is professor of history at Harvard University and the author of Indians in Unexpected Places and Playing Indian. His most recent book, coauthored with Alexander I. Olson, is American Studies: A Users Guide. He is a trustee of the Smithsonian Institutions National Museum of the American Indian, where he chairs the Repatriation Committee; a former president of the American Studies Association; and an elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.