Navajo Saddle Blankets: Textiles to Ride in the American Southwest: Textiles to Ride in the American Southwest - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0890134073 ISBN 13: 9780890134078

Publisher: Museum of New Mexico Press, 2004

Synopsis

Navajo saddle blankets are among the most underappreciated art forms in the American Southwest, the Cinderella of Navajo textiles. Saddle blankets have played a key role in Navajo life both as utilitarian objects and as a force in the economic sustainability of modern Navajo life. They represent a material link between Navajo weavers and traders. This modest textile has found a context in the cattle industry, inside rural cabins, on the floors of eastern bungalows, on the walls of art museums, and even on horseback. It has served countless cultural and utilitarian demands placed on it over the last century and a half, with no sunset in sight.

About this title

About the Author

Lane Coulter has taught art and design for more than twenty-five years and has organized exhibitions and lectured widely on American Indian jewelry and textiles and the Hispanic arts of New Mexico.

Reviews

Utilitarian items are frequently overlooked by collectors, but they often have a beauty of their own. So it is with Navajo saddle blankets, used until they wore out by Native Americans, cowboys, ranchers, and Mexican vaqueros, then shipped east for back-to-nature decor as throw rugs. The Museum of Indian Arts and Culture in New Mexico, which has an extensive collection of these saddle blankets, has drawn together not only illustrations of their holdings but also many essays on the history of rug weaving and trading posts dealing in blankets, cowboy life, weaving methods, and more. Since the essays are written by a variety of contributors, including curators, Navajo weavers, and historians, there is some overlap, but mostly this is fresh and interesting information. The brief description of the Navajo loom and weaving setup is the best since books from the 1930s, and the vibrant illustrations (85 color, 30 black-and-white) show the development and change in weaving styles from the pre-Bosque Redondo period to the present. Simple and humble, yet complex in conception and execution, these worn and respected blankets obviously did a lot more than comfort and protect a horse's hide. A good buy for most larger collections.-Gay Neale, formerly with Southside Virginia Community Coll. Lib., Alberta Nickerson, Jackie. Farm.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Museum of New Mexico Press
• Publication date: 2004
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0890134073
• ISBN 13: 9780890134078
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 144
• Editor: Coulter Lane