Jeremy Deller Selects Ledger Art from Frieze Masters

Writing for The Art Newspaper, British artist Jeremy Deller, who represented Britain at the Venice Biennale of 2013, picks out Ledger Drawings on view at Donald Ellis Gallery as some of his favourite works from Frieze Master, London. These drawings are ‘incredibly poignant when you consider the stories; it’s kind of an early art market,’ he notes.

Many of the drawings were created by Native American warrior artists while incarcerated, without trial, at Fort Marion in St. Augustine, Florida, between 1885-78. Prisoners were provided with paper and crayons and encouraged to depict their life on the open Plains. These drawings were often gifted to functionaries or sold to the burgeoning tourist industry. Around the same time, Native American warriors also began to create and sell drawings themselves.