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Transcending the Stereotype: Native American Art
| Article
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20530 |
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Section : |
THE ARTS
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| Issue
Date : |
11 / 1992 |
1,834 Words |
| Author
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Eric Gibson
Eric Gibson, art critic for the Washington Times, last wrote
on Henry Ossewa Tanner in the September 1991 issue of The
World & I. |
Perhaps it was inevitable that it would be in the year of the Columbus quincentenary, and particularly soon after its colossal 1492: Art in the Age of Exploration, that the National Gallery in Washington, D.C., would choose to mount an exhibition of American Indian art and artifacts and then leave it up for a full eight months, far longer than most, if not all, of its other exhibitions. The exhibition is question is Art of the American Indian Frontier: The Collecting of Chandler and Pohrt.
After all, there is hardly a more sensitive issue in the museum world at the moment than how to address and give proper recognition to the cultural achievements of Indians. And, just as in the organization of 1492 the National Gallery took pains to avoid every conceivable minefield associated with the Columbus quincentenary--by casting the net so wide as to exclude nobody--so has it been equally shrewd in its approach to the Chandler and Pohrt exhibition.
The politically tricky issue with Columbus and the Indians is the later group's objection to the notion that Columbus "discovered" America. How could he have, they argue, when we were here all along? By scheduling Chandler and Pohrt at all, not to mention so soon after 1492, the Gallery has come as near as possible to observing something of an "equal time" rule, saying in effect that even though it had to acknowledge the voyage of Christopher Columbus, that doesn't mean it plans to go along with the whole "discovery" idea by ignoring the artistic achievements of American Indians.
Still, the presence of political considerations in the organization of an art exhibition does not mean it will necessarily be a bad one, although that is more and more the case these days. In fact, Chandler and Pohrt is a very good one, as much for the questions it raises as for the material it presents to its audience.
The exhibition consists of 150 objects by the woodland and plains Indians that are but a fraction of a larger collection reaching into the thousands. In addition to the predictable feathered headdresses, there are articles of clothing, weapons, and artifacts such as a captivating array of pipes. Equally arresting are the bear claw necklaces.
In contrast to the accepted stereotype of art collectors, the two men who assembled this vast group of objects were not wealthy. Neither did either one of them have any formal training in the subject of American Indian art. Milford Chandler worked in an
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