‘Action/Abstraction Redefined’ opens June 24 at Saint Louis Art Museum

Exhibition expands narrative of abstraction to include Native artists

ST. LOUIS, June 21, 2023—The Saint Louis Art Museum will present its first exhibition to focus on modern and contemporary Native American art.

“Action/Abstraction Redefined: Modern Native Art, 1940s–1970s” opens in St. Louis with a free, public preview celebration at 4 pm on Friday, June 23. It continues through Sept. 3.

“Presenting this exhibition is an important opportunity for the Saint Louis Art Museum to continue our work to expand the narratives of American art while engaging our visitors with works of exceptional quality,” said Min Jung Kim, the museum’s Barbara B. Taylor Director.

In 2008, SLAM presented “Action/Abstraction: Pollock, de Kooning, and American Art, 1940–1976,” an exhibition organized by the Jewish Museum in New York in collaboration with SLAM and the Albright-Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo, N.Y. This new exhibition builds on and responds to that earlier exhibition, with a focus specifically on Native American artists and their influences.

“Action/Abstraction Redefined” is organized by Santa Fe’s Museum of Contemporary Native Arts at the Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA), a Native-American led institution with a deep, focused collection. SLAM has expanded the number of works in the touring exhibition from 52 to approximately 90—supplementing with works from national lenders and the museum’s collection—to provide more context for the remarkable story of abstraction during the first decade of the IAIA.

“‘Action/Abstraction Redefined’ will help visitors to see our historic collection of Native American art in new ways, as vital sources for contemporary artists,” said Alexander Brier Marr, SLAM’s associate curator of Native American art who curated the St. Louis presentation of the exhibition with Hannah Klemm, SLAM’s former associate curator of modern and contemporary art. “It will also help visitors to connect historic and contemporary Native art. As our collection of contemporary Native American art from last 30 years grows, this exhibition furnishes a critical middle chapter in the continuous history of artmaking by Indigenous North American peoples.”

Origins of the IAIA

Like abstract expressionist artists, who broke with representational conventions and prioritized experimentation, artists at IAIA redefined the concept of abstraction following World War II. Combining ancestral aesthetics and art influences coming out of New York, artists in the exhibition pushed the boundaries of Native art media, subjects and styles to develop the field of contemporary Native Art.

In the 1940s, Indigenous artists began to create work that overtly challenged received definitions of Native American art. These artists studied global art from across human history, drew freely from past Native American art and responded to current trends in mainstream modern art. Innovative artists—including Fritz Scholder, Lloyd Henri “Kiva” New and Linda Lomahaftewa—explored new modes of artistic expression in studios across the nation and especially at the IAIA, which was founded in 1962.

The IAIA nurtured innovation and encouraged experimentation as artists combined styles and methods of the New York school with abstract forms based in historical Native art. “Action/Abstraction Redefined” introduces audiences to this exciting body of artwork and deepens scholarship by highlighting many women artists whose work remains largely unknown even among specialists.

Exhibition details

The exhibition also provides the opportunity to fill chronological gaps in the museum’s collection. In March 2023, the museum purchased Fritz Scholder’s 1966 oil on canvas “New Mexico #45.” Marr noted that SLAM’s other holdings of Native American art provide many examples of the historical abstraction that IAIA artists engaged in their work. In recent years, the museum has also made it a priority to acquire contemporary works by Native American artists, including Truman Lowe, Wendy Red Star, Dyani White Hawk and others.

The galleries of the exhibition are organized chronologically, focusing first on Indigenous studio artists’ experimentation with abstraction in the 1940s and ‘50s.

Lloyd Henri “Kiva” New was the first artistic director of the IAIA in the early 1960s, and his early drawings and later paintings are on display in the next few galleries, which also focus on the IAIA and its style of teaching that encourages experimentation with materials and media.

Later galleries discuss the avant-garde techniques of abstraction including dripping, throwing, squirting and layering paint as well as the emphasis on different media that was central to the IAIA. Robust programs in drawing and printmaking were also taught to introduce students to the concepts of design, shape and texture.

Final galleries in the exhibition show the impact the IAIA has had on a larger scale. Artists featured in this section entered careers in the art world, returned to teach at the IAIA, or worked as social servants for their Indigenous nations. Contemporary art became more widely accepted by the 1970s, and the exhibition closes with a look into the rise of Native art in the 1970s.

The exhibition is accompanied by an audio guide that can be accessed on visitors’ own devices. The tour includes commentaries from artists depicted in the exhibition who share their experiences at the IAIA and their inspirations in the abstract expressionism movement. It can be found at slam.org/audio.

Exhibition-related events

“Action/Abstraction Redefined” will open June 23 with a public preview from 4 pm to 8 pm featuring cocktails and entertainment in Sculpture Hall. Tickets to the exhibition will be free that evening, and docents stationed in the galleries will discuss works on view.

Also on June 23, three artists whose works are featured in the exhibition will discuss their time at the Institute of American Indian Arts and how it shaped their work. Marr, who curated the St. Louis presentation of the exhibition, will moderate the discussion with artists Anita Fields, Linda Lomahaftewa and Alfred Young Man. The panel conversation begins at 6 pm in SLAM’s Farrell Auditorium. Tickets are $5 on MetroTix; members are free.

“Action/Abstraction Redefined” will also be the focus of a Family Sunday event from 1 pm to 4 pm on June 25. The free event will feature dancing and an abstract collage art project for children.

In conjunction with the exhibition, the museum is collaborating with the IAIA for a two-day literary festival July 28-29 that includes author readings and small group writing workshops. On Friday, July 28, four Native authors will read selections of their work at High Low, the Kranzberg Arts Foundation’s literary café. The readings and Q&A begin at 6 pm. The festival continues Saturday, July 29 with storytelling workshops from 10 am to noon at the museum and several St. Louis County Library branches.

The touring exhibition is curated by Manuela Well-Off-Man, chief curator, IAIA Museum of Contemporary Native Arts; Tatiana Lomahaftewa-Singer, curator of collections, IAIA Museum of Contemporary Native Arts; and Lara Evans, former IAIA professor of Native Art History.

Support for this exhibition is provided by Art Bridges. Additional funding is provided by the Missouri Arts Council, a state agency, and the National Endowment for the Arts and the Edward L. Bakewell Jr. Endowment for Special Exhibitions. Support for some programs is provided by the Trio Foundation of Saint Louis.

CONTACT: Molly Morris, 314.655.5250, molly.morris@slam.org