https://www.geraldstiebel.com/search?q=amerman
Diego Romero I wrote about 8 years ago ...
https://www.geraldstiebel.com/2016/09/diego-romero-1964.html
... and Tony Abeyta I have mentioned in miscellaneous Missives.
They have several things in common and the most important is that they are at the top of the chart in their fields of art. They have recognition from other artists as well as the collectors and museums that exhibit and acquire their work.
Something else they have in common is that they all attended The Institute of American Indian Art (IAIA) in the 1980’s and attribute much of their success to the school and the teachers who were seminal in their careers.
IAIA started out as a high school in 1962 and from 1975 offered college and post-graduate courses. In 1994 it was designated a land-grant college and by 2001 was fully accredited. Today 20% of the students art non-Native.
It could be compared to the French Royal Academy of the 18th century, the institution that oversaw the training of artists with hands on instruction by leading artists, lectures, access to prestigious commissions and opportunities to exhibit their work. All this is very similar to IAIA. However, instead of an annual Salon IAIA has a museum in the center of Santa Fe to exhibit the work of alumni and students.
The panelists talked about how IAIA also trained them in the business world and how to manage and sell their art, driving home that just saying you’re an artist does not put bread on the table.
All three of the panelists had degrees beyond their studies at IAIA. Diego Romero went to art school in Berkley before IAIA and then went on to Otis Parsons School of Design in Los Angeles for his BFA and UCLA for a Masters Degree. Tony Abeyta received an Associate of Fine Arts degree from IAIA and later an honorary doctorate of humanities. He earned his BFA from the Maryland Institute College of Art and a MFA from New York University. Marcus Amerman earned his BFA at Whitman College in Walla Walla Washington.
Diego Romero had debated whether to concentrate on making jewelry or pots. However, Ottelie Loloma, ceramicist and wife of the most famous Hopi jeweler, Charles Loloma, was teaching at IAIA and convinced Romero to concentrate on his ceramic work. In fact, Ottelie influenced many Native American artists who went to IAIA and not necessarily directing them towards ceramics.
The artists agreed that art was part of a narrative ie telling a story. Here is a pot by Diego Romero in the Nelson-Atkins Museum, Kansas City. The image depicts two soldiers, accompanied by a priest, executing a sentence imposed upon a number of Acoma men in 1599 in retaliation for the deaths of soldiers killed at the Pueblo months earlier.
I was surprised when Tony Abeyta talked about his education including travels to the South of France and to Florence. Abroad he learned from the work of Old Masters and contemporary European artists but did not try to copy them. He said of himself that, aside from being an artist, he is a collector and a curator and wants to understand the art of all cultures. Here is Abeyta at work painting a mural at the Heard Museum in Phoenix, Arizona to complement the exhibit,"Over the Edge: Fred Harvey and the Grand Canyon."
There were humorous moments in their presentations. When Romero said he looked at the work of Dan Namingha (Hopi Tewa) renowned painter and an IAIA student some years earlier, Marcus countered, that he too looked at the work of earlier artists, but in order to do something different!
Amerman also said something interesting that I did not think much about until I read my own notes. He said that Indian (Native American) artists get others to join their own cultures and not adopt that of others. That is probably one of the reasons that they are just recently joining the mainstream of the Eurocentric art world and are only now being incorporated in contemporary art collections. Amerman did this beaded work, “The Gathering” for the Portland Art Museum in Oregon. These Native American riders are represented against the Portland cityscape with Mount Hood in the background. It was inspired by a photograph of Nez Perce Chiefs of the Umatilla reservation in Oregon.
In the Q and A session one of the members in the audience asked, “How do you become an artist” and Tony Abeyta responded, “First you fill out the application ... ”
... and Tony Abeyta I have mentioned in miscellaneous Missives.
They have several things in common and the most important is that they are at the top of the chart in their fields of art. They have recognition from other artists as well as the collectors and museums that exhibit and acquire their work.
Something else they have in common is that they all attended The Institute of American Indian Art (IAIA) in the 1980’s and attribute much of their success to the school and the teachers who were seminal in their careers.
IAIA started out as a high school in 1962 and from 1975 offered college and post-graduate courses. In 1994 it was designated a land-grant college and by 2001 was fully accredited. Today 20% of the students art non-Native.
It could be compared to the French Royal Academy of the 18th century, the institution that oversaw the training of artists with hands on instruction by leading artists, lectures, access to prestigious commissions and opportunities to exhibit their work. All this is very similar to IAIA. However, instead of an annual Salon IAIA has a museum in the center of Santa Fe to exhibit the work of alumni and students.
The panelists talked about how IAIA also trained them in the business world and how to manage and sell their art, driving home that just saying you’re an artist does not put bread on the table.
All three of the panelists had degrees beyond their studies at IAIA. Diego Romero went to art school in Berkley before IAIA and then went on to Otis Parsons School of Design in Los Angeles for his BFA and UCLA for a Masters Degree. Tony Abeyta received an Associate of Fine Arts degree from IAIA and later an honorary doctorate of humanities. He earned his BFA from the Maryland Institute College of Art and a MFA from New York University. Marcus Amerman earned his BFA at Whitman College in Walla Walla Washington.
Diego Romero had debated whether to concentrate on making jewelry or pots. However, Ottelie Loloma, ceramicist and wife of the most famous Hopi jeweler, Charles Loloma, was teaching at IAIA and convinced Romero to concentrate on his ceramic work. In fact, Ottelie influenced many Native American artists who went to IAIA and not necessarily directing them towards ceramics.
The artists agreed that art was part of a narrative ie telling a story. Here is a pot by Diego Romero in the Nelson-Atkins Museum, Kansas City. The image depicts two soldiers, accompanied by a priest, executing a sentence imposed upon a number of Acoma men in 1599 in retaliation for the deaths of soldiers killed at the Pueblo months earlier.
I was surprised when Tony Abeyta talked about his education including travels to the South of France and to Florence. Abroad he learned from the work of Old Masters and contemporary European artists but did not try to copy them. He said of himself that, aside from being an artist, he is a collector and a curator and wants to understand the art of all cultures. Here is Abeyta at work painting a mural at the Heard Museum in Phoenix, Arizona to complement the exhibit,"Over the Edge: Fred Harvey and the Grand Canyon."
Amerman also said something interesting that I did not think much about until I read my own notes. He said that Indian (Native American) artists get others to join their own cultures and not adopt that of others. That is probably one of the reasons that they are just recently joining the mainstream of the Eurocentric art world and are only now being incorporated in contemporary art collections. Amerman did this beaded work, “The Gathering” for the Portland Art Museum in Oregon. These Native American riders are represented against the Portland cityscape with Mount Hood in the background. It was inspired by a photograph of Nez Perce Chiefs of the Umatilla reservation in Oregon.
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