Rhonda Holy Bear, Wakah Wayuphika Win, Making with Exceptional Skills Woman (Cheyenne River Lakota, born 1959)
Assiniboine Scalp Shirt Wearer
INV-1229
Rhonda Holy Bear, Wakah Wayuphika Win, Making with Exceptional Skills Woman (Cheyenne River Lakota, born 1959)c. 1986
Assiniboine Scalp Shirt Wearer
Rhonda Holy Bear, Wakah Wayuphika Win, Making with Exceptional Skills Woman (Cheyenne River Lakota, born 1959) →lakotatetonsiouxplains indiandolls (figurines)sculpture
Date
c. 1986
Medium
Wood, hide, hair, beads, feathers, and pigment
Dimensions
46.4 × 22.9 × 12 cm (18 5/16 × 9 1/16 × 4 3/4 in.)
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Location
Chicago, IL
Credit
Gift of the Foundation for the Preservation of American Indian Art and Culture
Rhonda Holy Bear’s earliest sculptures were made of cloth covering a wire armature. This was her first “transitional” figure, in which she carved the head from wood. She based the work on watercolor portraits of Assiniboine men painted by Swiss artist Karl Bodmer in the 1830s. These images inspired Holy Bear to create the details of the figure’s garments and beadwork. The ancestral homelands of Assiniboine peoples, who traditionally call themselves the Hohe Nakota, stretch along the Missouri River. Today, Assiniboine communities are centered at the Fort Peck and Fort Belknap reservations in Montana, as well as in Saskatchewan, Canada.
Also notable
Works in the same vein
Pipe Bag
Lakota Wyoming, central or northern Plains, United States
Sun Dance Scene
Painter unknown (Teton Lakota) Central Plains or Northern Plains, Wyoming
Lakota Honor - Sees The Horses Woman - SuWakan Ayutan Win
Rhonda Holy Bear, Wakah Wayuphika Win, Making with Exceptional Skills Woman (Cheyenne River Lakota, born 1959)
