Picturing History: Ledger Drawings of the Plains Indians

In September, the Fairfield University Art Museum, Fairfield, Connecticut, will present Picturing History: Ledger Drawings of the Plains Indians. Donald Ellis Gallery is proud to be the lender of an important group of Ledger Drawings to this exhibition.

In the second half of the nineteenth century, artists from the Great Plains peoples, including the Lakota, Cheyenne, Arapaho and others dwelling in the Central United States and Canada, produced an extraordinarily rich and distinctive body of drawings. These works on paper chronicle battles, ceremonies, and winsome if sometimes jarring events of everyday life. They are known as Ledger Drawings as they were created on the pages of commercially produced account books which were newly available to artists of the day. These striking images, many bearing pictographic signatures, are executed in ink, graphite, and colored pencil and watercolor. What they all share is their makers’ acute powers of observation and ambition to record and describe recognizable people, places, things and events—to eloquently picture and record history as it transpired. The show runs from September 27 - December 20, 2017.

For additional information on the exhibition and the accompanying events visit: https://www.fairfield.edu/museum/exhibitions/past-exhibitions/ledger-drawings-of-the-plains-indians/index.html