Art of the American Indians: The Thaw Collection
MARCH 7–MAY 30, 2010
Admission free
This major survey exhibition of American Indian art of the Arctic, Northwest Coast, California and the Great Basin, Plains, Southwest, and Eastern Woodlands is drawn from the Eugene and Clare Thaw Collection of American Indian Art at the Fenimore Art Museum in Cooperstown, New York.
Programming for families and students of all ages interprets many aspects of ancient and modern American Indian art, including masks of the Arctic and Pacific Northwest, the dramatic beaded and painted works of the Plains, and the luminous arts of the Woodlands. Art and programming by contemporary Native artists establishes the continued vitality and creativity of Native North American people and their cultures.
Horse Mask, about 1875–1900. Nimi’ipuu (Nez Perce) or possibly Cayuse, Idaho, Oregon, or east Washington. Thaw Collection, Fenimore Art Museum, Cooperstown, N.Y., T0097. Photograph by John Bigelow Taylor
Exhibition Programs
Exhibition Tours
Thursdays, 1:30
Sundays, 2:30
Craft Demonstrations for Families by local Native artisans
Saturdays, March 13, April 3, 10, 24, May 1, 22, 1:30, Key Bank Lobby
Family and Community Day
Sunday, March 7, 1:00–4:00
Join us on the opening day of the exhibition to celebrate Native art traditions, including Native dancing and drumming, flute playing, storytelling, hands-on art workshops, and craft demonstrations. Free and open to all.
Diplomacy, Curiosity, and Early Native American Art from the Great Lakes: Two Profiles of the Soldier-Collector c. 1800
Saturday, March 20, 2:30, Recital Hall
Ruth Phillips, Professor of Art History and Canada Research Chair in Modern Culture, Carleton University, Ottawa, Ontario
Discover the earliest collections of Great Lakes Native American art that have come down to us from military officers in the British and American armies during the late 18th and early 19th centuries. While some of these men and their wives shared the period passion for collecting exotic curiosities, others were involved in intense diplomatic negotiations with prospective indigenous allies. This talk explores the collections they made and the contact they had with Anishinabe (Ojibwa) and Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) people.
American Indian Photography: Authorship and Representation
Sunday, April 25, 2:30, Recital Hall
An afternoon of lectures and conversation in conjunction with the companion exhibition, The American Indian Image: Photographs by Edward S. Curtis and Zig Jackson, on view in the Cleveland Museum of Art’s photography galleries, February 7 through May 30.
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The Journey of Rising Buffalo
Zig Jackson (Mandan/Hidatsa/Arikara), Artist, Photographer, and Educator
Hear Zig Jackson convey his experience as a Native artist in contemporary America. His photographs reveal a people in transition, a traditional indigenous culture struggling to survive in a rapidly changing technological society. Attempting to counteract centuries of bias and misrepresentation, Jackson uses photography to document the everyday life experience of today’s Indians.
Native Authorship in the Works of E. S. Curtis and Other Episodes in the History of Representation
W. Jackson Rushing III, Adkins Presidential Professor of Art History and Mary Lou Milner Carver Chair in Native American Art, University of Oklahoma
What were the motivations for, and legacy of, Edward Curtis’s monumental photographic project, The North American Indian? Learn about the agency of Curtis’s Native photographic subjects, whose psychological acuity helped create the content of his romantic pictures. Discover the wider history of Native representation in the work of modern and contemporary photographers, such as Horace Poolaw, Hulleah Tsinhnahjinnie, and Larry McNeil. |
Art to Wear: Plains Indian Decorated Garments
Sunday, May 9, 2:30, Recital Hall
Joe D. Horse Capture (A’aninin [Gros Ventre]), Associate Curator of the African, Oceanic, and Native American Art Department, The Minneapolis Institute of Arts
Joe D. Horse Capture will explore the forms, decoration, and thematic significance of garments created by Native Americans of the Great Plains region. These powerful objects, which testify to their creators’ ingenuity, serve as symbols of status and accomplishment. An expert in the arts of the Plains, Horse Capture will discuss many fine examples of these decorated garments in the Thaw Collection.
Resources Around the Circle: Native North American Art and Culture
$60 for all three events; CMA, WHRS, and CMNH members $50
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Saturday, March 27
The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1:00–2:30
Learn about the exhibition Art of the American Indians: The Thaw Collection and discover CMA’s Art Cart with touchable American Indian art objects
Saturday, April 17
Western Reserve Historical Society, 1:00–2:30
Learn about WHRS’s collections of materials related to Native North American Indians
Saturday, May 8
Cleveland Museum of Natural History, 1:00–2:30
Hands-on workshops to learn about CMNH’s collections related to Native North American Indians |
Performing Arts
Tanya Tagaq: Inuit Throat Singing
Wednesday, March 10, 7:30, Gartner Auditorium
$29, CMA members $28
Hear groundbreaking Inuk throat singer Tanya Tagaq, who has brought an ancient Inuit (indigenous Arctic) vocal game to the height of the experimental music scene. She has collaborated with Björk and the Kronos Quartet, and makes music that is both decidedly unusual and universally appealing.
Concert info
Film
Seeing Red
Seven classic and contemporary films about North America’s indigenous peoples—most directed by Native American filmmakers—complement the museum’s exhibition Art of the American Indians: The Thaw Collection. Selected screenings will be followed by a discussion led by Marie Toledo (Jemez Pueblo). Admission to each film is $8; CMA members, seniors 65 & over, and students $6; or one CMA Film Series voucher.
Reel Injun
Wednesday, March 31, 7:00. Directed by Neil Diamond, with Adam Beach, Clint Eastwood, Sacheen Littlefeather, and Russell Means. Using interviews and ample film clips, a Cree filmmaker traces the portrayal of North American Indians through a century of cinema. Cleveland premiere. (Canada, 2009, color, DVD?, 89 min.)
Barking Water
Friday, April 2, 7:00 and Saturday, April 3, 1:30. Directed by Sterlin Harjo. A terminally ill Native elder is sprung from his hospital deathbed by his ex, who drives him home to reconcile with his estranged grown daughter. This touching road movie by Oklahoma-based Seminole/Creek filmmaker Sterlin Harjo (see also 4/7) combines sentiment with self-discovery. Cleveland premiere. (USA, 2009, color, 35mm, 80 min.) www.barkingwaterfilm.com
Four Sheets to the Wind
Wednesday, April 7, 5:30 and 7:15. Directed by Sterlin Harjo, with Cody Lightning. After the death of his father, a shy Oklahoma Native leaves the family nest to venture into the unpredictable world beyond, finding disappointment and love. A neglected gem from Native American independent filmmaker Sterlin Harjo (see 4/2 & 4/3). Cleveland theatrical premiere. (USA, 2007, color, DVD, 81 min.)
Before Tomorrow (tentative)
Friday, April 9, 7:00 and Sunday, April 11, 1:30. Directed by Marie-Hélène Cousineau and Madeline Ivalu. Set around 1840 in Canada’s Far North, this powerful film from the producer of The Fast Runner tells of an Inuit elder who spends one summer drying fish on an isolated island with her 10-year-old grandson. But when winter approaches and the clan fails to fetch them, she fears the worst. “Profound, elemental and hauntingly beautiful . . . Makes an intimate story of endurance into a metaphor for an entire culture.” –Variety. Cleveland premiere. (Canada, 2008, color, subtitles, 35mm, 93 min.) www.beforetomorrow.ca
Older Than America
Wednesday, April 21, 7:00 and Friday, April 23, 7:00. Directed by Georgina Lightning, with Adam Beach, Georgina Lightning, Bradley Cooper, Tantoo Cardinal, and Wes Studi. A Native American woman plagued by nightmarish visions seeks their cause. This supernatural thriller—the first movie directed by a longtime Native actor and advocate—tackles the tragic displacement of indigenous people in the U.S. Cleveland theatrical premiere. (USA, 2008, color, Blu-ray?, 102 min.) www.olderthanamerica.com
In the Land of the Head Hunters
Sunday, April 25, 1:15. Directed by Edward S. Curtis. Famed photographer Edward S. Curtis collaborated with the Kwakiutl people of British Columbia to create this singular silent movie—the first film with an all-indigenous cast, made eight years before Flaherty’s Nanook of the North—that weds authentic (but staged) Native American rituals to a melodramatic story about a tribal love triangle. Cleveland premiere of a restored 35mm print from the UCLA Film & Television Archive. (USA, 1914, b&w?, silent with live music?, 35mm, 75 min.)
Alcatraz Is Not an Island
Wednesday, April 28, 7:00. Directed by James M. Fortier. The 1969–71 occupation of Alcatraz Island by Native American “Red Pride” activists is recounted with the aid of interviews, vintage film clips, and reenactments in this fascinating documentary narrated by Benjamin Bratt. Cleveland theatrical premiere. (USA, 2001, color, Beta SP, 69 min.)
Organized by the Fenimore Art Museum in Cooperstown, N.Y. This exhibition has been made possible by the National Endowment for the Arts as part of American Masterpieces: Three Centuries of Artistic Genius. The Cleveland Museum of Art’s exhibition and education programs are made possible through the generous support of Dominion Foundation, Medical Mutual and Giant Eagle.
