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Winter Count

CultureBrule Lakota (Teton Sioux), South Dakota
Dateca. 1902
MediumInk and watercolor on muslin
DimensionsUnframed: 24 1/8 × 35 1/4 inches (61.28 × 89.54 cm)
Framed: 30 1/2 × 41 1/4 × 2 inches (77.47 × 104.78 × 5.08 cm)
Credit LineGift of George Terasaki
Object number2005.30
On View
On view
Gallery Location
  • 208
DescriptionPainting of irregularly shaped rectangular muslin panel; delineation of imagery in dark brown with accents of color. Imagery consists of boxlike divisions, each filled with pictographic imagery.Gallery Label
Winter counts are pictorial, sequential histories created within a number of Plains tribes. Each image—symbol, object, figure or scene—represents an event by which an entire year, or winter, is counted and recorded in the history of the group. Framed within rectangles and organized as an inward-turning spiral, these images served as a memory aid for the keeper of the count, who could recite the history they represented to others. In this way, all important personal and tribal events were recalled and placed in time relative to what had been documented in the images. The keeper’s narrative, an oral tradition, was an essential component in relating the meaning of each drawing. This count spans the years 1826 to 1902.
Published References
Torrence, Gaylord, ed. Continuum: North American Native Art at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. Kansas City: Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art.
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