Philip J. Deloria (Dakota descent) is professor of history at Harvard University and the author of Indians in Unexpected Places and Playing Indian. His most recent book, coauthored with Alexander I. Olson, is American Studies: A User’s Guide. He is a trustee of the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of the American Indian, where he chairs the Repatriation Committee; a former president of the American Studies Association; and an elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
"The moment to savor [Mary Sully’s] semi-abstract celebrity
‘portraits’ (Albert Einstein, ZaSu Pitts), which combine a
modernist spirit and Native American aesthetics, has arrived."
*New York Times*
"In his evaluation of Sully and her work, Deloria leaves no stone
unturned. What results is a compelling model—grounded in
comprehensive historical and cultural analyses—for evaluating the
works of women artists disconnected from larger art movements. In
the case of Mary Sully, our understanding of her art and life
reveals a unique approach by a bicultural woman that rejects
limited views on American Indian art in favor of one grounded in an
imagined American Indian futurity that should most certainly lead
us to question our understanding of American modern art as a
whole."
*Woman’s Art Journal*
"A significant contribution to a growing body of literature
recognizing the roles of women in creating an Indigenous futurity
rooted in self-representation and self-determination. The cultural
work of women like Mary Sully challenges narratives that place
Indigenous people outside of, and in opposition to, the modern
world."
*Momus*
"Sully’s art survives as a testament to Indigenous culture in the
face of Western resistance."
*UW Daily*
"Becoming Mary Sully introduces the stunning and original work of a
heretofore unknown artist."
*Artblog*
"Phil Deloria’s Becoming Mary Sully endows what may seem to be a
modest group of documents with radical potential. Moving through
biography, formal analysis, art criticism, ethnographic and
psychological theory, and Oceti Sakowin history and values, he
offers an extended argument for seeing the work of this self-taught
artist as engaging modernity from a deeply Indigenous
perspective."
*Native American and Indigenous Studies Journal*
"In Deloria’s fascinating study of Sully’s previously unknown work,
a project both deeply personal and highly attentive to broader
historical and artistic currents, he locates a new narrative of
Indian futurity and survivance in the realm of modernist
aesthetics."
*Western Historical Quarterly*
"Sully’s sensitivity to her cultural influences and history is
acute and visionary, and Deloria’s analysis and scholarship
communicates his deep respect for her vision. Emerging from
potential obscurity, Sully’s work deepens cultural perceptions of
American Indian abstraction."
*Hyperallergic*
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