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Exhibition: ‘Indigenous Beauty: Masterworks of American Indian Art from the Diker Collection’ at the Amon Carter Museum of American Art, Fort Worth, Texas

Exhibition dates: 5th July – 13th September 2015

Elizabeth Conrad Hickox (Karuk)
Somes Bar, California
“Fancy” lidded basket
c. 1917-1926
Conifer root, maidenhair fern stems, porcupine quills, hazel shoots
Courtesy American Federation of Arts Diker no. 445

Just one word: glorious.

And to think, these disparate cultures were nearly wiped out through genocide enacted upon them by the white race.

Marcus

Many thankx to the Amon Carter Museum of American Art for allowing me to publish the art work in the posting. Please click on the photographs for a larger version of the image.

Drawn from the celebrated American Indian art collection of Charles and Valerie Diker, Indigenous Beauty: Masterworks of American Indian Art from the Diker Collection showcases approximately 120 masterworks, including fine examples of basketry, pottery, sculpture, ivories, kachina dolls, regalia, and pictographic arts from tribes across the North American continent. The exhibition provides rare access to many exquisite works from one of the most comprehensive and diverse collections of American Indian art in private hands.

Indigenous Beauty is organised by the American Federation of Arts. This exhibition was made possible by the generosity of an anonymous donor, the JFM Foundation, and Mrs. Donald Cox.

Text from the Amon Carter website

Louisa Keyser (also known as Datsolalee, Washoe)
Carson City, Nevada
Basket bowl
1907
Willow shoots, redbud shoots, bracken fern root
Courtesy American Federation of Arts Diker no. 326

Nampeyo (Hopi-Tewa)
Hano Village, Hopi, Arizona
Water jar
c. 1900
Clay, slip
Courtesy American Federation of Arts Diker no. 824

Ancestral Pueblo
New Mexico
Water jar
c. 1150
Clay, slip
Courtesy American Federation of Arts Diker no. 313

Old Bering Sea III culture
Bering Strait region, Alaska
Harpoon counterweight (Winged object)
5th-9th century
Walrus ivory
Courtesy American Federation of Arts Diker no. 731

Niimiipu (Nez Perce)
Oregon or Idaho
Man’s shirt
c. 1850
Hide, porcupine quills, horsehair, wool, glass beads, pigment
Courtesy American Federation of Arts Diker no. 666

Julian Scott ledger Artist B (Ka’igwu [Kiowa])
Kiowa and Comanche Indian Reservation, Oklahoma
Twelve High-Ranking Kiowa Men
Nd
Pencil, coloured pencil, and ink on paper
Courtesy American Federation of Arts Diker no. 059 LD

This summer, the Amon Carter Museum of American Art presents the traveling exhibition Indigenous Beauty: Masterworks of American Indian Art from the Diker Collection. Organised by the American Federation of Arts (AFA), the exhibition is drawn from the celebrated holdings of Charles and Valerie Diker and features approximately 120 masterworks representing tribes across the North American continent. The exhibition is on view at the Amon Carter from July 7 through September 13, 2015.

“This exhibition has been shaped by the Dikers’ passion for Native American art, and their collection is renowned as one of the largest and most comprehensive in private hands,” says AFA Director Pauline Willis. “We are delighted to bring these exquisite works to Fort Worth.”

Selections from the collection have been presented previously at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (1998-2000) and the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian (2003-2006), but Indigenous Beauty showcases recent acquisitions never before seen by the public. This is the first traveling exhibition curated from this remarkable collection.

“Charles and Valerie Diker are collectors and stewards of exceptional works of art from all corners of native North America, and audiences will be awed by the transformative spirit of creativity of the First Peoples whose ‘art schools’ were their families and communities,” says Barbara Brotherton, curator of Native American Art at the Seattle Art Museum. “This traveling exhibition and accompanying catalogue will invigorate new perspectives and rich discussion about the ways in which these objects affirm cultural values and express refined aesthetic sensibilities.”

Indigenous Beauty emphasises three interrelated themes – diversity, beauty and knowledge – that relate both to the works’ original contexts and to the ways in which they might be experienced by non-Native visitors in a contemporary museum setting. The exhibition is organised in 11 sections; while the objects within each section demonstrate common formal and functional qualities, the groupings are based primarily on geographic and cultural factors, allowing the viewer to perceive the impact of historical events as well as stylistic shifts over the course of decades or centuries. The range of work represented includes sculpture of the Northwest Coast; ancient ivories from the Bering Strait region; Yup’ik and Aleut masks from the Western Arctic; Kachina dolls of the Southwest pueblos; Southwest pottery; sculptural objects from the Eastern Woodlands; Eastern regalia; Plains regalia; pictographic arts of the Plains; and Western baskets.

Diversity is underlined as an essential aspect of indigenous American art, a corrective to the notion of a homogenous “American Indian” cultural and ethnic identity.

“Visitors to the exhibition are reminded that there is not just one North American Indian culture but hundreds of unique groups whose languages, mythologies and customs have evolved over the centuries,” says Andrew J. Walker, director of the Amon Carter. The comprehensive nature of the Dikers’ collection allows for this broad view of Native American art in all its complexity and historical specificity.”

A hallmark of the Diker Collection is the beauty and visual richness of the objects it comprises. The concept of formal beauty is the oldest and perhaps the strongest link between the material cultures of indigenous people and those of the Euro-American West. All known Native American languages include words that signify beauty or aesthetic quality, and many have more than one term to convey these concepts. For instance, in the language of Anishinaabe peoples which includes the Ottawa, Ojibwa or Algonquin, the word miikawaadiziwin refers to physical comeliness or handsomeness, while bishigendaagoziwin denotes beauty of a more spiritual and ethical nature. Such nuanced vocabularies influence the creation of objects within Native communities, each with its own criteria for technical excellence and aesthetic merit.

Cultural knowledge is inseparable from the practices of traditional art making in Native communities. From their elders, artists learn techniques for gathering and processing materials; production methods; a repertory of designs and patterns and the meanings they may contain; and often songs, prayers and rituals that are closely tied to art making. Over the last few decades, increased scholarship and closer collaborations between museums and Native communities have resulted in the recovery of knowledge about how objects were made, as well as their provenance and the ways they might have been used and understood in the contexts in which they originated.

Indigenous Beauty celebrates native North American artists whose visionary creativity and technical mastery have helped preserve cultural values across generations. The artists identified as members of many tribes and nations, each the product of complex and intertwined histories; and the captivating objects they created convey the extraordinary breadth and variety of Native American experience in North America. The exhibition shows both the deep historical roots of Native art and its dynamism, emphasising the living cultures and traditions of Native American groups through to the contemporary era.

Visitors to the Amon Carter can have a hands-on experience with many of the materials the artists used to create the objects in the exhibition. Tactile boards with several authentic materials (such as buffalo hide, abalone shells and seed beads) will be available for visitors to interact with while viewing the artworks.

Indigenous Beauty: Masterworks of American Indian Art from the Diker Collection is organised by the American Federation of Arts. This exhibition was made possible by the generosity of an anonymous donor, the JFM Foundation and Mrs. Donald M. Cox. The guest curator, David Penney, is an internationally recognized scholar of American Indian art. A fully illustrated catalogue presenting new research on the objects in the exhibition will include an essay by Penney, and contributions offer insight into the visual and material diversity of the collection, providing a greater understanding of the social and cultural worlds from which these works came. The catalogue will retail for $55 in the Museum Store. After closing at the Amon Carter, the exhibition travels to the Michael C. Carlos Museum at Emory University (October 8, 2015 – January 3, 2016) and Toledo Museum of Art (February 14 – May 11, 2016).

Press release from the Amon Carter Museum of American Art website

Muscogee (Creek)(?)
Georgia or Alabama
Pipe bowl
c. 1780
Wood, brass (?), ferrous nails (?), tin
American Federation of Arts Diker no. 531

Anishinaabe, Ojibwa
Ontario
Shoulder bag (without strap)
c. 1820
Hide, porcupine quills, tin cones, silk ribbon, dyed hair
Courtesy American Federation of Arts Diker no. 586

Apsáalooke (Crow)
Montana
Boy’s shirt
c. 1870
Hide, glass beads, cotton fabric, wool cloth, sinew, cotton thread
Courtesy American Federation of Arts Diker no. 665

Tsimshian
British Columbia
Maskette
1780-1830
Wood, copper, opercula shell, pigment
Courtesy American Federation of Arts Diker no. 681

Yup’ik
Hooper Bay, Alaska
Mask
1916-1918
Wood, pigment, vegetal fiber
Courtesy American Federation of Arts Diker no. 788

Ancestral Columbia River people
Washington State or Oregon
Figure (Pendant?)
3rd-13th century
Antler
Courtesy American Federation of Arts Diker no. 529

Tlingit, Chilkat
Klukwan, Alaska
Tunic and leggings
late 19th century
Cedar bark, wool, metal cones
Courtesy American Federation of Arts Diker no. 795

Zuni
New Mexico
Situlilu (Rattlesnake) Katsina
1910-1930
Cottonwood, pine, gesso, pigment, dyed horsehair, cornhusk, cotton cord
Courtesy American Federation of Arts Diker no. 835

Hopi
Arizona
Qötsa Nata’aska Katsina
1910
Cottonwood, cloth, hide, metal, pigment
Courtesy American Federation of Arts Diker no. 831

Amon Carter Museum of American Art
3501 Camp Bowie Boulevard
Fort Worth, TX 76107-2695

Opening hours:
Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday:  10 am – 5 pm
Thursday: 10am – 8pm
Sunday: 12am – 5pm
Closed Mondays and major holidays.

Amon Carter Museum of American Art website

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Exhibition: ‘Time Exposures: Picturing a History of Isleta Pueblo in the 19th Century’ at the National Museum of the American Indian, New York

Exhibition dates: 17th September 2011 – 10th June 2012

George Gustav Heye Center, New York

Photographer unknown
Albuquerque Indian School Boys with Flags
c. 1900
9 x 12cm
Courtesy of the National Archives and Records Center

Another glorious, eclectic posting with a couple of knockout photographs, including Sumner Matteson’s Simon Zuni (1900, below) and George Wharton James’s Selling goods along tracks (late 1880s to early 1900s, below). The latter is a masterpiece of early modernist photography. Observe the spatial construction of the picture: open and yet closed at the same time. What do I mean by this? The image allows the eye to wander, to meander if you like among the structures while always having an escape into the sky, into the distance of the partially blocked vanishing point. The objects flow across the image plane like music; at left the dark shape and its shadow falling on the railway tracks hold in that side of the image. If the shape wasn’t there your eye would fall out of that side of the photograph, it would not be enclosed. It is this enclosure which forces your gaze into the distance. An asymmetrical balance is achieved with the train car at right, this time with the added punctum of the limply hanging flag to hold the viewer’s attention.

Most stunning of all is the composition in the centre, with changes in scale, orientation and direction – frontal, angled, away – and the commensurate shadows thrown from a setting sun. Reinforcing this flow is the chiaroscuro of the people selling goods – the white of the dress and the dark of the shawl, with the wonderfully raised arm breaking up the vanishing point / vertical composition. The shape of the dog lopping away parallel to the train tracks would normally lead us to an empty vista, the vanishing point on the horizon line of the image. Partially it still does, but the photographers skill in orientating his camera, in previsualising this tableaux (which must have been seen in a split second) is that the box car denies the eye an easy exit point. A series of telegraph poles at left hint at further human encroachment into the landscape, while at right the eye can finally leave the ground an ascend into the sky and escape into the beyond.

This is quite the most exquisite photograph I have seen in a long time.

Dr Marcus Bunyan

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Many thankx to the National Museum of the American Indian, New York for allowing me to publish the photographs in the posting. Please click on the photographs for a larger version of the image.

Charles Lummis (American, 1859-1928)
Cacique Bautista Chivira, with his wife and daughter Lupe Chivira and Rafaelita Chivira Charles
September 21, 1892
30.5 x 48cm
Courtesy of the Autry National Center/Southwest Museum, Los Angeles

Charles Lummis (American, 1859-1928)
Group portrait
c. 1890’s
15.425 x 24cm
Courtesy of the Autry National Center/Southwest Museum, Los Angeles

Charles Lummis (American, 1859-1928)
Cyanotype photograph album: Bits of New Mexico and Arizona, Vol. 2
Nd
5.25″ x 9.25″
Courtesy of the Autry National Center/Southwest Museum, Los Angeles

The rapid changes forced on the Native American peoples of the American southwest are documented in Time Exposures: Picturing a History of Isleta Pueblo in the 19th Century. With more than 80 images and objects that detail life on the Isleta Pueblo Reservation after the arrival of the railroads in 1881, the exhibition opens Saturday, Sept. 17, at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian in New York, the George Gustav Heye Center, and continues through Sunday, June 10, 2012.

In 1881, the railroad companies forcibly took land in the centre of Isleta Pueblo in the Rio Grande Valley and the rail lines built there brought scores of tourists. Prominent non-Native artists and photographers, such as Edward Curtis and Ben Wittick, traveled there to capture everyday Pueblo life. Organised by the people of Isleta Pueblo, Time Exposures portrays their lives before the arrival of tourists and other visitors, the changes imposed over the following decades and the ways in which the people of Isleta Pueblo worked to preserve their way of life.

Time Exposures is divided into three parts. In the first section, the cycle of the Isleta traditional year as it was observed in the mid-19th century is detailed. The second section describes the arrival of the Americans and the how this disrupted the Isleta way of living. In the third section, the exhibit examines the photos themselves as products of an outside culture. While exploring the underlying ideas and values of the photos, the exhibition questions their portrayal of Isleta people and ways. “In this exhibition, Native people respond to the stereotypical images of their lives that have been circulated by outsiders for centuries,” said Kevin Gover (Pawnee), director of the museum. “It is an opportunity for us all to learn the realities behind some of these popular and enduring photographs.”

“These photographs tell such an important story,” said John Haworth (Cherokee), director of the Heye Center. “The people of Isleta Pueblo fought to maintain their traditions despite radical and dramatic disruptions.”

Included in the exhibition are images by photographers Edward Curtis, A.C. Vroman, Karl Moon, John Hillers, Charles Lummis, Carlos Vierra, Sumner Matteson, Albert Sweeney, Josef Imhof and Ben Wittick. Time Exposures: Picturing a History of Isleta Pueblo in the 19th Century was organised by the people of the Pueblo of Isleta. A committee of Isleta Pueblo traditional leaders oversaw the development, writing and design of the exhibition. Time Exposures originally appeared at the Albuquerque Museum of Art and History in New Mexico.

Press release from the National Museum of the American Indian, New York website

George Wharton James (American, 1858-1923)
Selling goods along tracks
late 1880s to early 1900s
40 x 27cm
Courtesy of the Autry National Center/Southwest Museum, Los Angeles

Sumner Matteson (American, 1867-1920)
Simon Zuni
1900
46 x 33 cm
Photograph Courtesy of the Milwaukee Public Museum, Sumner W. Sumner Matteson Collection

Unknown photographer
Jose S. Abeita, bronco buster, in Magdalena
c. 1920
25 x 40cm
Courtesy of the Autry National Center/Southwest Museum, Los Angeles

Charles Lummis (American, 1859-1928)
Young Isleta Girl
Nd
Cabinet card
Courtesy of the Library of Congress

Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian
The George Gustav Heye Center
One Bowling Green, Battery Park, New York City
Phone: (212) 514-3700

Opening hours:
Every day from 10am – 5pm
Thursdays until 8pm

National Museum of the American Indian website

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