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Water, Wind, Breath

Southwest Native Art in the Barnes Foundation

Lucy Fowler Williams editor

Format:Hardback

Publisher:Yale University Press

Published:10th May '22

Should be back in stock very soon

Water, Wind, Breath cover

The Barnes Foundation’s historic Pueblo and Navajo collections are explored alongside works by contemporary Native American artists

This richly illustrated book makes the Barnes Foundation’s exceptional collection of Native American art from the Southwest available to the public for the first time. Collector and educator Albert C. Barnes traveled to the U.S. Southwest in 1930 and 1931 and, deeply impressed by the generative art practices he saw there, formed a collection of Pueblo and Navajo pottery, textiles, and jewelry. Water, Wind, Breath illuminates the materials, forms, and designs of the objects as they relate to Pueblo and Navajo histories and ideas. The book blends postcolonial and Indigenous perspectives, introducing readers to living artistic traditions filled with purpose, intention, and a deeply embedded spirituality that connects places, practices, and Native identities. Works by contemporary Native American artists are juxtaposed with historic pieces, illuminating the connections between heritage traditions and modern practices.

Distributed for the Barnes Foundation


Exhibition Schedule:

The Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia
(February 20–May 15, 2022)

ISBN: 9780300264128

Dimensions: unknown

Weight: unknown

224 pages