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Artist (Chahiksichahiks (Pawnee))

Drum

Datec. 1890
DimensionsOverall: 3 1/2 × 18 in. (8.9 × 45.7 cm)
Object numberT0086
Credit LineGift of Eugene V. and Clare E. Thaw
Photograph by John Bigelow Taylor, NYC
Label TextThis double-sided drum is painted on both sides of the rawhide. One side shows thunder clouds and a yellow sky full of swallows, who often herald the coming of thunderstorms on the Plains. In the black clouds two red birds also shoot lightning from their eyes, while down on the earth, a man offers a pipe to the Thunderbird. On the other side a white star is surrounded by a radiating yellow light, perhaps representing the Morning Star, a key figure in Pawnee creation stories. The white dots in the dark blue background overtly refer to the stars of the night sky, but can also be perceived as the hail associated with thunderstorms, another manifestation of Thunder’s powers.
Exhibition History"The 45th Annual Winter Antique Show," New York, NY, January 12, 1999 – January 25, 1999.

"Art Des Indiens D'Amerique Du Nord Dans La Collection D'Eugene Thaw," Mona Bismarck Foundation, Paris, France, Somogy Editions D'Art, January 21, 2000 - March 18, 2000.

"Treasures from the Thaw Collection," Wheelwright Museum of American Indian Art. Santa Fe, NM, May 1, 2000 - December 31, 2000.

"Art of the American Indian: The Thaw Collection," The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH, March 2, 2010 - May 30, 2010; Minneapolis Museum of Art, Minneapolis, MN, October 24, 2010 - January 9, 2011; Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, TX, April 24, 2011 - September 23, 2011; Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indianapolis, IN, December 4, 2011 - February 12, 2012.

"Shapeshifting: Transformations in Native American Art," Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, MA, January 14, 2012 - April 29, 2012.

"Nature's Nation: American Art and Environment," Princeton University Art Museum, Princeton, NJ, October 13, 2018 - January 6, 2019; Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, MA, February 2, 2019 - May 5, 2019; Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, AR, May 25, 2019 - September 9, 2019.
ProvenanceNewton Collection, North Carolina; Pierre Bovis, Santa Fe, New Mexico; George Terasaki, New York
BibliographyVincent, Gilbert T. "The Eugene and Clare Thaw Collection of American Indian Art." Antique. Vol CXLVIII, no. 1, (July 1995): p.63, pl.II.

Vincent, Gilbert T. Masterpieces of American Indian Art. New York: Harry Abrams, 1995, p.42.

Zimmerman, Larry J. Native North America. New York: Little, Brown and Company, 1996, p. 137.

Vincent, Gilbert et al. Art of the North American Indians: The Thaw Collection. Cooperstown, New York / Seattle: Fenimore Art Museum / University of Washington Press, 2000, p.123.

Kramer Russell, Karin (ed) Shapeshifting Transformation in Native American Art. New Haven and London, Yale University Press, 2012. pg.92-94.

Brownlee, Peter John, Piccoli, Valeria and Uhlyarik, Georgiana (eds), Picturing the Americas: Landscape Painting from Tierra del Fuego to the Arctic, New Haven and London, Yale University Press, 2015. Fig. 3 & 4, p. 93.

Perriot, Francoise, and Slim Batteux, trans. Art des Indiens d'Amerique du Nord: Dans la Collection d'Eugene et Clare Thaw. Paris, Somogy, 1999, p. 55, fig. 40.

Murdock, Michelle, trans. 50 at 20: Masterpieces of the Thaw Collection. Cooperstown, NY: Fenimore Art Museum, 2010, p. 14.

Fognell, Eva and Alexander Brier Marr, eds. Art of the North American Indians: The Thaw Collection at the Fenimore Art Museum, 2nd ed. Cooperstown, New York: Fenimore Art Museum, 2016, p. 137.
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5798 STATE HIGHWAY 80
COOPERSTOWN NY, 13326
607-547-1400

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