Native populations, Oklahoma and South Dakota

Like Martens and Ramsey, William Tsutsui and Marjorie Swann argue that the Great Plains region does not reveal a single style of art but instead several distinctive elements and common concerns. Native American traditions have been a powerful shaper of state artistic identity in the Plains, especially in states with larger Native populations, Oklahoma and South Dakota in particular. Perhaps one of the more remarkable early Plains representations from the exploration period can be found in the physically enormous work of John Banvard. In 1840, Banvard created what was then called the largest painting executed by humans. Rising to the challenge of representing this dramatic and extensive region, he created a three‐mile‐long panorama of Plains topographical scenes that amazed audiences in the East and Europe. The isolated experience of Plains life influenced artists in two ways. First, some left the region for professional advancement elsewhere. Second, others found that the isolation offered the possibility of an expressive range that might not be found in the urban centers where other artists congregated. Finally, for those who stay in place, the painter Robert Sudlow points out that this extensive rural space offers the artist no subject, but it does offer both space and weather. The challenge is that of conveying presence rather than absence in this vast landscape and, second, representing a vast and complex horizontal distance rather than the more traditional focus on the vertical. This unique landscape and demanding climate offer contemporary artists a number of fascinating representational challenges.