Action/Abstraction: Pollock, de Kooning and American Art, 1940-1976 was an exhibition at the St. Louis Museum of Art in 2008. It focused on the well-known artists of the pivotal abstract expressionist movement in American art.
Lloyd Kiva New (Cherokee, 1916-2002), Untitled, 1968, acrylic on canvas, 42¼ x 31½”. Museum of Contemporary Native Arts, Santa Fe CHE-23; © Lloyd Kiva New.
This year, the museum will host the exhibition Action/Abstraction Redefined: Modern Native Art, 1940s-1970s organized by the Museum of Contemporary Native Arts at the Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA) in Santa Fe. The traveling exhibition will contain about 90 works “to provide more context for the remarkable story of abstraction during the first decade of IAIA.”
Fritz Scholder (Luiseño, 1937-2005), New Mexico #40, 1966, acrylic on canvas, 73½ x 51½”. IAIA Museum of Contemporary Native Arts, Santa Fe; © Estate of Fritz Scholder.
The Institute of American Indian Arts was founded in 1962. It encourages its students to experiment with contemporary art movements while learning more about their own cultural heritage. The museum explains, “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.”
Anita Fields (Osage/Muskogee Creek), Untitled, woodblock on paper, 14¼ x 11¼”. IAIA Museum of Contemporary Native Arts, Santa Fe; © Anita Fields.
Lloyd Kiva New (Cherokee, 1916-2002) was a founder and the first art director at IAIA. Commenting on artists building from tradition and expressing themselves in contemporary modes, he wrote, “Indian art of the future will be in new forms, produced in new media and new technological methods. The end result will be as Indian as the Indian who produced it.” He is represented in the exhibition by his geometric abstract painting Untitled, 1968.
The figurative paintings of Fritz Scholder (Luiseño, 1937-2005) are easily recognizable. One of his paintings in the exhibition, New Mexico #40, 1966, is a color field painting inspired by the rocks and mesas of New Mexico.
T. C. Cannon (Caddo/Kiowa, 1946-1978), Firelights, 1965, oil on canvas, 36¾ x 48¾”. IAIA Museum of Contemporary Native Arts, Santa Fe; © Estate of T.C. Cannon.
Multi-disciplinary artist Anita Fields (Osage/Muskogee Creek), is among the Native women artists featured in the exhibition. She comments, “The work I make signifies a continuum of thought, knowledge and the essence of who we are as Indigenous peoples living in a modern, chaotic and challenging world. I want to convey the beauty and importance of other cultures and the thought that there are many ways of looking at the world. When we can look through another lens, one different from mainstream society, we can begin to acknowledge and hopefully appreciate what other cultures continually contribute to the place we call home.” Her Untitled woodblock print is in the exhibition.
The exhibition opens June 23 and will continue through September 3.
June 23-September 3, 2023
Action/Abstraction Redefined: Modern Native Art, 1940s-1970s
Saint Louis Museum of Art, One Fine Arts Drive, Forest Park, St. Louis, MO 63110 | (314) 721-0072, www.slam.org
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