Art of the Osage

Though Art of the Osages is a beautifully illustrated compendium of images representing both traditional and modern Osage artworks, its greater contribution lies in the guidance it provides to an appreciation of the cultural context in which those materials were produced. Perhaps the most important feature of the book is that it succeeds in getting this information across to general audiences even as it stimulates the interests of specialists. * Museum Anthropology * The book is more than a catalog. It features a series of well-written essays that vivify the Osage's daily life, cosmology, and religion. [T]he book is essential for Native American collections. . * Library Journal * A meaningful exploration into a tribal cosmology that bursts into life with all the color and excitement of a fireworks display. [Highly recommended] for its sensitivity, beautiful presentation, and outstanding format. * Multicultural Review * A guided tour of an Osage art museum contained between two covers. * The Chronicles of Oklahoma * The images contained in this book are beautiful! The accompanying text is well written and insightful. It provides important understandings of an art form centered in community life, uninfluenced by external commercial forces. * Arts & Activities *

Garrick Bailey is professor of anthropology at the University of Tulsa. Daniel C. Swan , former chief curator of the Gilcrease Museum in Tulsa, Oklahoma, is associate professor of anthropology and director of the Chucalissa Museum at the University of Memphis. Distinguished Osage oral historian and artist E. Sean StandingBear was selected by the Osage Tribal Council for this project. John W. Nunley is the organizing curator of the Art of the Osage exhibit at the Saint Louis Art Museum and author of Caribbean Festival Arts: Each and Every Bit of Difference and other books.

Foreword--Brent R. BenjaminAcknowledgments--John W. NunleyIntroduction--Garrick Bailey1. Early Osage Art and History--Garrick Bailey2. Osage Cosmology--Garrick Bailey3. Osage Daily Life: Living Life as a Prayer--Garrick Bailey4. The Osage Peyote Religion--Daniel C. Swan5. The Richest People in the World--Garrick Bailey6. Osage Dancing Societies and Organizations7. Osage Aethetics--A Curatorial View--John W. Nunley, E. Sean StandingBearNotesReferencesIndexPhotography Credits