"For American Indians in the U.S. Southwest, painting on canvas and paper is a twentieth-century innovation, yet one firmly grounded in centuries-old traditions of rock art and painting on pottery, headdresses, altars, and kiva walls. In 1998, the School of American Research in Santa Fe, New Mexico, hosted a gathering of ten respected Indian painters who reflected on and shared ideas about their art, its cultural heritage, and its future directions.

This book profiles the participating artists and their work, recounts the highlights of their discussions, and explores the history of the easel painting tradition from which their work springs.".

"Representing seven different Pueblo groups and the Navajo Nation, some of these painters incorporate traditional cultural scenes and symbols in their pictures - often in novel and abstract ways - while others create decidedly contemporary works grounded in Euro-American influences. Whatever the artist's style may be, each draws on a "deep remembering" of tribal heritage and personal experience as well as a sophisticated awareness of the artist's role in more than one modern world.

Together, their words and works indeed depict "the state of the art.""--BOOK JACKET.