Southwestern Native American Art

This installation occurred in the past. The archival installation summary below describes the installation as it was conceived while on view.

Southwestern Native American Art presents outstanding historical and contemporary Southwest art forms that have long captivated audiences around the world. Gallery 323 has been reconceived to focus on ceramics, textiles, jewelry, and baskets that highlight some of the most iconic and innovative styles of Indigenous art from North America.

The works on view reflect an active period of revival and experimentation through the use of materials and forms historically created by Indigenous women. The gallery features a massive jar that fuses abstract and representational painting. Among the most ambitious ceramics from Zia Pueblo, this work reflects the achievements of a generation of women who coiled, painted, and pit fired vessels for new fine arts markets in the early 20th century.

At the same time, southwestern artists adopted new materials. Diné (Navajo) women incorporated prespun and predyed wool yarns in textiles, for instance, while men became proficient in silversmithing to reconfigure jewelry. These artists extended long-standing practices of cosmopolitanism and experimentation. For more than a century, southwestern artists have also reshaped broad definitions of Native American art through studio-based drawing, printmaking, painting, and photography. This gallery will celebrate those accomplishments in graphic media through regular rotations of art on view.

The gallery features exceptional works from the Museum’s collection, including recent acquisitions of silver, textiles, and works on paper that will be displayed for the first time.

Southwestern Native American Art is curated by Alexander Brier Marr, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Assistant Curator of Native American Art.

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