SEATTLE, WA.- On the heels of the critically acclaimed travelling exhibition, “Indigenous Beauty: Masterworks of American Indian Art from the Diker Collection,” Donald Ellis Gallery brings an unprecedented exhibit of exceptional, museum-caliber selections for sale of historical Native American art from the Pacific Northwest and Great Plains to the first edition of the Seattle Art Fair.

The gallery exhibit for Seattle features the largest group of historical Plains Indian ledger drawings ever presented in the US since the landmark exhibition in 1996 at New York’s Drawing Center. Highlights among the 50 ledger drawings (ca. 1875 – 1895) on view by Arapaho, Cheyenne, Crow, and Lakota Sioux artists are four important Southern Cheyenne ledger drawings, Central Plains (ca. 1875) attributed to Howling Wolf, a warrior and an artist. His work was part of the groundbreaking travelling exhibition, “The Plains Indians: Artists of Earth and Sky,” on view at the Metropolitan Museum of Art this past spring.

“Encouraged by major museum shows on historical Native American Indian art taking place over the past few years, here and abroad, we wanted to further these efforts as a gallery by presenting an extensive range of Plains Indian ledger drawings of extraordinary quality at this new fair. Our goal is to gather greater interest in this astounding, yet largely undiscovered, graphic art tradition among art enthusiasts and collectors alike,” said Donald Ellis.

Additionally, the gallery presents an exceptional selection of 12 rare Native American objects from the Pacific Northwest (1780 – 1880). Highlights among these remarkable offerings of artistic expression and cultural tradition also include a Tsimshian crest headdress, Northern British Columbia (ca. 1840), and a Tlingit raven rattle, Southeast Alaska (ca. 1860). Both objects were featured in major survey exhibitions at the Seattle Art Museum (the former in 1984 and 1998, and the latter in 1998).

Plains Ledger Drawings
Ledger drawings (named for the accounting ledger books that were often used) originated in Northern and Southern Plains Indian cultures during the 1860’s.They incorporated aspects of well-established pictographic traditions on the Plains, including imagery found in carvings on stone and paintings on hide; while employing recently introduced materials including crayon, colored pencil, pen, watercolor, and paper. Early on, this new form of Native American art largely depicted important battles or hunting expeditions as a means of chronicling a tribe’s history. During the mid-1870’s, the end of Indian Wars led to the institution of the reservation system throughout the Plains, and the incarceration of Indian prisoners including Howling Wolf (who were encouraged to draw) at Fort Marion in St. Augustine, Florida. As a result, ledger drawings shifted in subject matter from warrior exploits to wildlife and hunting, courtship, and religious ceremony. Poignantly reflecting the pivotal transformation of the Plains Indians from nomadic existence to forced settlement, and by touching on so many levels — aesthetic, cultural, and historical, these drawings have emerged as an iconic Native American art form.