Native American Art Exhibition

 

The Toledo Museum of Art’s (TMA) “Expanded views: Native American Art in Focus” exhibition helped me appreciate Native Americans’ perception of beauty. I think that Native American art pieces are simple, individual, purposeful, child-like, playful, and hand-made. My journey through the exhibit transported me to an epoch when we, humans, invested our time searching for nature to provide us with sources of survival and creativity.

My first impression of the whole exhibition, while standing at the entrance door, was a sense of serenity, calm, space and order. All of these emotions, are the same ones I feel when I am in contact with nature. As I stood still, at the exhibition entrance, I noticed that the paintings and other artworks were arranged hanging on the walls; and the ceramic and glass pieces were showed in pedestal-displayed-cases that facilitated the view of the art details. My attention was quickly directed to the impressive 15-panel painting, that covers half of the wall opposite to the entrance door. It is the warm colors intensity of the 15-panels, that depict mountain peaks, that predominates and brightens the whole exhibition. By standing closer to the 15-panel-oil-painting, I learned that it is called Triichum. Triichum was made by James Lavadour, from the Walla Walla tribe, in 2013.

This exhibition called for me to “focus” on the art, one-by-one, without haste, with plenty of time to read each art-label that describes the artist and the artwork. Through the active reading of the labels, I understood the artists’ life and message that inspired them to create their artwork. I was very touched by learning María Martínez’s life and work. Her art was influenced by her ancestors’ way of working on ceramics. She was a descendant of the Anasazi tribe from New Mexico. A decorative blackware pottery jar, hand-made by María and painted by her husband Julián in 1940, is an important centerpiece of the exhibit, which is a new acquisition to the TMA collection. The accompanying art-label reads: María Martínez is credited to “having revived the style of blackware pottery in contrast to the all-red or polychrome ware that had dominated the San Ildefonso Pueblo’s production for generations.”

Making a pictorial association with the “Triichum," there is a four-panel (pigment prints) multimedia called “Four seasons” made by Wendy Red Star in 2006. The wall-label reads “poses important questions about the complexity underlying Native American identities and who owns representation.” There are four choreographed artist’s photographs, in Native American attire, in different seasons: Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter. She is sitting in the ground surrounded by choreographed depictions of animals, plants, flowers and scenery made of artificial materials such as plastic, Styrofoam and cardboard. Her art is urging us to ask ourselves: what is real? what is artificial? The artist, Wendy Red Star, was raised in the Apasáalooke (Crow) reservation in Montana. I interpreted her artwork as a denunciation of how discarded industrial materials are impacting on our planet Earth’s nature and their damaging consequences on the environment.

It is by this kind of thought-provoking art exhibition, that we can get involved in conversations, regarding marginalized groups and cultures, where we can celebrate their historical contributions to the human race and become a more empathetic and compassionate human beings.