The present and historical works of art and expression produced by Native Americans are varied in medium and style, and thanks to this variety Native American art has always been popular among collectors, from occasional collectors who purchase art from a private artist to museum curators and owners of large private collections who constantly keep up with trends in Native American art to ensure the timeliness and completeness of their large collections.
One theme that seems to run throughout Native American art, from paintings by Hopi artists in the Southwest to pottery made by Shoshone craftspeople whose native lands are farther north, is a love for and connection to the land from which the artists stem. This can be expressed in the form of a traditional animal figure, or in a statue or amulet that is a replica of Native American earth deities of old that appeared in animal form throughout Native Indian folklore and religious worship.
In addition, Native American Indian art is known for its bold colors, and seemingly simple, yet actually painstakingly complex and delicate, patterns often featuring geometric shapes juxtaposed against one another in bright, vivid colors. This boldness and detail is what attracts many new collectors to the beauty of Native American art, which they may first encounter even as schoolchildren visiting a museum as part of study of the Native American culture.
Native American art also takes on less traditional forms, especially over the last few decades when Native American Indian artists have been commemorating and eternalizing their disappearing culture by painting the dress and scenes of even their more recent ancestors, to say nothing of the chiefs, warriors and squaws of old who sadly met their end during the expansion of the United States onto Native territory. Indeed, the compelling rationale behind the recent explosion of new Native American art and artists is the need to retain the glory of Native American history, and to share it with their descendants and other Americans in the universal language of art that so well expresses that history.
Simple yet complex, bold and bright, and most of all connected intimately to the land and history of its talented creators, Native American art is highly recognized and prized by collectors, both in the United States and abroad. Native American art is prized for its direct expressiveness in remembering the greatness of a culture that has disappeared and is often misunderstood.