Innholdsfortegnelse for April - May 2017 / No.8 i Native American Art Magazine

Scott Shoemaker, Ph.D. Thomas G. & Susan C. Hoback Curator of Native American Art, History & Culture Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art Indianapolis, IN, (317) 636-9378 www.eiteljorg.org What exhibitions are you currently working on? I’m working on a special exhibition celebrating the 25th anniversary of the Eiteljorg Museum’s Indian Market and Festival. The opening will coincide with this year’s market and will showcase the museum’s purchase awards and signature images related to the market as well as honoring and celebrating all of the artists who have participated over the last 25 years. I am also beginning the process for the reinstallation of our Native American galleries, which is scheduled for 2021. Name an interesting museum exhibit, gallery opening or work of art you’ve seen recently. I recently…

This article is excerpted from Mark Winter’s book The Master Weavers: Celebrating one hundred years of Navajo Textile Artists from the Toadlena/Two Grey Hills Weaving Region that is available for purchase on the Toadlena Trading Post website, www.toadlenatradingpost.com. In the early 20th century, the region’s new traders encouraged weavers to improve their skills and develop a distinctive local style. Their efforts helped establish a broader market for local Navajo textiles, allowing them to pay better prices to the weavers. The weavers responded by weaving increasingly complex and creatively designed rugs with fine handspun yarns. Soon the legacy of the Toadlena/ Two Grey Hills rug was born. Bloomfield’s, Davies’ and Newcomb’s integrity and compassion are still alive in the hearts and memories of the area’s grandmothers. Toadlena/Two Grey Hills textiles are…

When Melodie Eagle was in the fourth grade, the curriculum assigned by the California Department of Education had a segment on the culture of Native Americans. Her class went on a field trip to Northern Arizona in 1985 and she had decided ahead of time that she would return with a black-on-black Santa Clara Pueblo pot. She found one—a piece by Genevieve Suazo (1935- 2016)—and paid $18 for it. When she arrived home and showed her parents the 1½-inch pot her father said “You paid $18 for that?” A few years before, the Eagles were vacationing in the Black Hills and saw a katsina of an eagle dancer by Kerry David (Hopi) at a trading post. They loved it, were intrigued by the “eagle” motif and thought it would be…

SANTA FE, NM More than 200 artists from 40 tribes and pueblos will gather in Santa Fe for the 13th annual Native Treasures. The event is hosted by the Museum of Indian Arts & Culture and proceeds will help fund future exhibits at the museum. Santa Clara Pueblo potter Jody Naranjo will be honored as this year’s Living Treasure, and will bring a wide variety of her work—sculpture, pottery, blankets and glass—to the show. “I’ve been working on this as my main event and showing for the year as I’m so honored to be the Living Treasure,” Naranjo says. “I look forward to seeing all of my artist, collector and museum friends! It is always such a warm and intimate show.” An exhibit at the Museum of Indian Arts &…

WASHINGTON, DC Laura Gilpin (1891-1979) grew up in Colorado and received her first Kodak Brownie camera when she was 12. She later decided to study photography and went to New York to study at the Clarence White School. On an earlier visit to New York in 1905, her mother hired Gertrude Käsebier to do a formal photographic portrait of her. Käsebier (1852-1934) was a follower of Alfred Stieglitz (1864-1946) and his advocacy of pictorialist photography. Clarence White (1871-1925) taught the technical aspects of photography and encouraged his students’ personal vision. They included some of the great women photographers of the early 20th century— Margaret Bourke-White, Dorothea Lange, Doris Ulmann and Gilpin among them. White instilled in Gilpin the love of process and she later became proficient in the delicate and…

MONROVIA, CA At John Moran’s Decorative Arts auction on April 25, a first phase chief ’s blanket is expected to earn the top lot, as it is estimated to sell for between $100,000 and $200,000. The blanket has an impressive provenance, having been originally owned by Randall Morgan of Chestnut Hill, Pennsylvania, and was gifted to his manservant, a man named Albert Schmidt, after his death. Jeff Moran, senior vice president of John Moran, explains, “A relative of Albert Schmidt just recently inherited the house and found the blanket in a closet, along with a second phase transitional chief’s blanket. He was looking for an opportunity to sell it, and his daughter saw a video of ours on YouTube about the Chantland blanket we sold in 2012 and said, ‘Dad,…

TUCSON DESERT ART MUSEUM With the assistance of Shiprock Santa Fe Gallery, the Tucson Desert Art Museum has acquired a second phase Navajo chief’s blanket. The museum already had first, third and fourth phase chief’s blankets in its collection, and this new acquisition makes them one of only a handful of museums in possession of chief’s blankets from all four phases. “One of the most sought-after Navajo textiles is the chief’s blanket, and we looked everywhere for that second phase,” says museum director Rhonda Smith. “We were so fortunate that [Shiprock gallery owner] Jed Foutz had found one and then made the deal for us to acquire it.” The second phase of Navajo weaving occurred between the 1840s and 1870s and introduced red dye in a rectangle motif to the…

The Navajo (Diné) are Athabascan-speaking people who migrated to the Southwest from Canada in about the 15th century. Navajo women learned weaving in the mid-1600s from their Pueblo Indian neighbors who had been growing and weaving cotton since about A.D. 800. Spanish settlers had brought their churro sheep to the region in the early 1600s and introduced the Navajo to wool. By the early 1800s, Navajo weavers used wool exclusively, and became well known among both their Indian and Spanish neighbors for finely woven, nearly weatherproof blankets that became popular trade items. Garments, especially wearing blankets, comprised most of the products of early Navajo looms. Traditional, Native-made blankets were wider than long (when the warp was held vertically) and were known as mantas. The Spanish introduced the longerthan- wide serape…

When it comes to Native American weavings and textiles, some of the most treasured works are early classic Navajo blankets, particularly first, second and third phase chief’s blankets. A number of major museums have one or two, and a very select few have one of each. Western Spirit: Scottsdale’s Museum of the West has a magnificent trio: each is in spectacular condition, each shows the highest quality of weaving and, most importantly, each features a remarkably unique design. The pieces are on long-term loan from the Tim Peterson Collection and are exhibited in the ongoing exhibition Courage and Crossroads: A Visual Journey through the Early American West. Peterson, a prolific Boston collector, has assembled a large and carefully selected grouping of Western paintings and bronzes and Native American artifacts so…

SONOITA, AZ A new exhibition, Navajo Textiles as Modern Art—Then and Now, is ongoing at Nizhoni Ranch Gallery in Sonoita, Arizona. The exhibition—a companion exhibit to The Dazzled Eye: Navajo Weavings from the Getzwiller Collection at the Tucson Desert Art Museum in Tucson, Arizona— focuses on the modern aspects of Navajo weavings, and illustrates the importance of Native American design on the very fabric of American art styles. Pieces in the gallery show include strong examples of eye dazzler weavings, which emerged during a difficult transition period for the Navajo. “They were adjusting to their new life on the reservation after a devastating four-year forced confinement by the United States government at Bosque Redondo, a desolate area on the Pecos River in eastern New Mexico,” the museum catalog states. “During…

SANTA FE, NM The young painters at San Ildefonso Pueblo’s day school were encouraged to paint what they wanted to paint. At the turn of the 20th century Crescencio Martinez (1879-1918) was encouraged to paint his Native dances—a theme that would become common among his fellow painters. Tonita Peña (1893-1949) went against the tradition of potters being women and painters being men when she began painting with materials given to her by her teacher Esther Hoyt. Hoyt also encouraged Alfonso Roybal (1898-1955), “Awa Tsireh,” to paint his home life. These autoethnographic paintings were representations of events the artists had experienced, scrupulously accurate and not embellished to satisfy a growing tourist interest in Native art. The figures were drawn and painted on featureless backgrounds, emphasizing the dancers, animals and other figures.…

MESA, AZ Brian Lebel’s High Noon Show & Auction has always had a remarkable turnout, but even organizers were shocked at the attendance at this year’s dealer show and sale on January 21 and 22 in Mesa, Arizona. Crowds packed into the Mesa Convention Center’s two exhibition spaces, and the hallway that joined them became a constant stream of collectors, enthusiasts and dealers. The high attendance was most noticeable at the auction on the first day, as standing-room-only crowds mingled in the back of the hall and many others watched from the wings. “We put more people in there than we ever have before,” show owner Brian Lebel says. “It was absolutely packed. Our best count at the beginning was 800 people, but more people were still coming even as…

DENVER, CO With approximately 1,000 lots available over the course of two days, Leslie Hindman Auctioneers’ Arts of the American West sale is a treasure trove for collectors of both Native American and Western art. The auction, which takes place May 6 and 7, kicks off the season for the company’s Denver location. Highlighting the Native American art portion of the sale is an expansive array of items, including property being sold to benefit the Denver Art Museum’s acquisition fund and pieces from other consignors. “It is such an extensive group of property, I can almost say there is something from every different region,” says Maron Hindman, Managing Director West/Southwest at the auction house. Represented will be items from the Northeastern and Southeastern Woodlands, the Plains, the Southwest, the Great…

1 THROUGH APR. 1 TAHLEQUAH, OK Anna Mitchell Legacy Cherokee Heritage Center (888) 999-6007 www.cherokeeheritage.org 2 THROUGH APR. 2 NORMAN, OK PHOTO/SYNTHESIS Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art (450) 325-3272 www.ou.edu/fjjma 2 THROUGH APR. 2 NORMAN, OK Poteet Victory Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art (450) 325-3272 www.ou.edu/fjjma 2 THROUGH APR. 2 PHOENIX, AZ Beauty Speaks for Us Heard Museum (602) 252-8840 www.heard.org 16 THROUGH APRIL 16 SANTA FE, NM Jicarilla: Home Near the Heart of the World The Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian (505) 982-4636 – www.wheelwright.org 8 APR. 8 CINCINNATI, OH American Indian and Western Art Cowan’s Auctions (513) 871-1670 www.cowans.com 20 APR. 20 SCOTTSDALE, AZ Virgil Ortiz: Taboo King Galleries (480) 481-0187 www.kinggalleries.com 17 MAY 17 DENVER, CO Arts of the American West Spring Auction Leslie Hindman Auctioneers (312) 280-1212 www.lesliehindman.com 11 THROUGH JUNE 11…

ALBUQUERQUE, NM Now in its 34th year, the Gathering of Nations Powwow will take place April 27 through 29 on the “Powwow Grounds” at Expo New Mexico/ Tingley Coliseum in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The new venue will also include new attractions, such as the teepee village and a white buffalo exhibition. More than 3,000 Native American singers and dancers will compete for prizes, and 800 artisans and craftsmen will display and sell their work. The event opens with the Miss Indian World Talent Competition at the Albuquerque Convention Center. For more information, visit www.gatheringofnations.com. 46th annual Trail of Tears Art Show returns to the Cherokee Heritage Center TAHLEQUAH, OK The Trail of Tears Art Show will take place at the Cherokee Heritage Center in Tahlequah, Oklahoma, from April 8 to…

Based on a chapter in their forthcoming book Navajo Weavings with Ceremonial Themes: A Historical Overview of a Secular Art Form to be published by Schiffer Books later this year. Most collectors of Navajo textiles are familiar with the Yeibichai weavings depicting the participants in the sacred Yeibichai Dance, which concludes the Nightway, the best-known of the various Navajo curative ceremonies. Weavings portraying performers in the Mountainway, a lesser-known healing ceremony, have, because of their rarity, escaped the attention of scholars and at the same time intrigued collectors who have often misinterpreted their imagery. The purpose of this article is to introduce this particular category of weavings and describe their ceremonial imagery on the basis of the accounts left by the scholarly observers of the Mountainway, notably Washington Matthews (The…

SCOTTSDALE, AZ To push his artwork forward, Virgil Ortiz looks to the past. His work for Taboo, upcoming at King Galleries, takes inspiration from the Cochiti Pueblo pottery of the late 1800s. “The art from that time told stories of what the people were seeing. Especially with the introduction of the railroad, so the people were seeing a lot of new things like traveling circus shows, which would show up on the pottery. Being exposed to that kind of storytelling opened the door to everything for me,” Ortiz says. When he first saw these storytelling pots, Ortiz knew that it was a style he had to revive. The pieces of his ancestors serve as a window into how Native land was conquered in the name of greed, and Ortiz’s modern…

SANTA FE, NM Last year, potter Delores Juanico (Acoma) walked into a Santa Fe gallery to show some of her work to gallery owner Lyn A. Fox. It was a fateful meeting for both Fox and Juanico. “During that visit, she spotted an early and wellused 20th-century Acoma fine line water jar with a swirling Tularosa design that I had guessed may have been made by a particular potter,” Fox remembers. “However, she believed the jar was made by her grandmother. She was inspired to make her own version and brought it to me a few weeks later. I was astonished! She had created, not a copy, but her own interpretation of the old jar.” And an exhibition was born. Opening April 1 at Lyn A. Fox Fine Pueblo Pottery…

SAN RAFAEL, CA February 17 to 19, the nationally recognized American Indian Art Show | Marin took place at the Marin Center Exhibition Hall in San Rafael, California, and saw countless collectors and art lovers pass through the doors. The event, which brings together passionate dealers from around the country to sell and exhibit materials, highlights all facets of the Native American art market. Found throughout the show are jewelry, textiles, baskets, pottery, beadwork, sculpture, paintings and more. Barry Walsh, co-owner of Buffalo Barry’s Indian Art with his wife, Valerie Wedge, had a successful outing at the 2017 event. “The show went well,” says Walsh. “More specifically, we sold 10 katsina carvings and 21 pieces of jewelry, and several other items. It was great to see old friends and to…

CINCINNATI, OH On April 8 at 10 a.m., Cowan’s Auctions will host its American Indian and Western Art sale featuring a diverse and widespread array of material. Included will be everything from prehistoric rock art to jewelry by Charles Loloma across nearly 500 lots. Highlights of the sale are offerings brought to market from two important collections. “This sale is unique in that we are offering for the first time Ancient Art of the Eastern Woodlands – The Jan Sorganfrei Collection. We’ll be featuring 12 birdstones as well as numerous bannerstones, gorgets, pendants and pipes. The majority of the these objects, which are generally dated to be 4,000 to 6,500 years old, were found in Ohio, Michigan and Indiana,” says Danica Farnand, Cowan’s director of American Indian art. “The collection…

GREAT FALLS, MT Now in its 30th year, the March in Montana auction will change venues after its home of the past 29 years, the Townhouse Inn, was demolished last year. Its new home, the Elks Lodge in the heart of Great Falls, Montana, has a historic significance to the auction, as it was once the club of the Western great Charles M. Russell, and it has on display a large collection of Russell memorabilia. “We have a lot of great Native offerings this year,” says Bob Nelson, owner of Manitou Galleries and senior partner of the auction. “Generally, in Montana we have historically sold a lot of weavings, and this auction is no different. These range from transitional blankets to saddle blankets to floor rugs, all in great condition.”…