A new exhibition at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., reflects the diversity of contemporary Native art, underscoring the right of self-representation by Indigenous artists. The Land Carries Our Ancestors: Contemporary Art by Native Americans includes artwork by 50 living Native artists and was assembled by guest curator Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, an artist and citizen of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Nation of Montana.
Cara Romero (Chemehuevi), Indian Canyon, 2019, archival pigment print. Courtesy of the artist. © Cara Romero.
The National Gallery of Art has recently made several new acquisitions of work by Native American artists, including Emmi Whitehorse, G. Peter Jemison and Marie Watt, which will be featured in the exhibition.
Fog Bank will be the first piece by Whitehorse to join the National Gallery of Art’s permanent collection. She says that when she first began painting, she knew she didn’t want to create stereotypical images of Indians riding on horses in full regalia.
Emmi Whitehorse (Navajo (Diné)), Fog Bank, 2020, mixed media on paper on canvas, 51 x 78”. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., William A. Clark Fund, 2022.41.1.
Instead, she looked inward and contemplated what she knew best so that she could create work that actually represented her. “Landscape is what I knew best. My backyard. I’ve observed it, painted it and it provides an endless source of inspiration to me,” Whitehorse writes in her artist statement.
Fog Bank is an atmospheric piece inspired by the desert landscape near Whitehorse’s home in Santa Fe, New Mexico. To create the rich blue backdrop, she used her hands and brushes to rub pastel into the paper, and the collection of colorful symbols are a shorthand for specific plants, people and experiences meaningful to the artist.
Jemison’s Sentinels (Large Yellow) is a 2006 work that visualizes the role of Native people as stewards of the land. Along the top of the piece, viewers can see winter progressing into summer, and the dried, drooping sunflowers are foregrounded against a sunny yellow background. Sunflowers are of particular importance in the Seneca creation story, representing first light.
Marie Watt (Seneca Nation of Indians), Antipodes, 2020, vintage Italian beads, industrial felt, and thread, 64”. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. Gift of Funds from Sharon Percy Rockefeller and Senator John Davison Rockefeller IV, 2022.32.1. Image courtesy of the artist. Photograph by Kevin McConnell.
“This painting was created at Ganondagan, where we are taking back our original homeland and bringing it back to life through growing traditional medicine and foods,” Jemison writes. “That’s what this painting is about. There is a season for growing and a season for resting and returning to the earth.”
Watt’s Antipodes is a two-part beaded sculpture that incorporates pre-1920s Venetian glass beads sewn onto felt backings. On each of the hangings, she incorporates a word of significance. “Skywalker” on the upper hanging is meant to honor the Khanawake Mohawk ironworkers who helped build bridges and buildings in New York City at the turn of the 20th-century, as well as referencing the famed Star Wars franchise. “Skyscraper” on the lower hanging references the structures Native ironworkers helped create, and how the buildings separated them from the ground and brought them closer to celestial heights.
G. Peter Jemison (Seneca Nation of Indians), Sentinels (Large Yellow), 2006, acrylic, oil and collage on canvas, 36 x 40”. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. Gift of Funds from Sharon Percy Rockefeller and Senator John Davison Rockefeller IV, 2022.22.1.
Watt writes, “Antipodes is defined as ‘the exact opposite or contrary,’ yet it is a mistake to think of opposites as merely being oppositional. In this work, I explore the possibilities that arise in the dynamic spaces between opposites, on both a physical and metaphysical level.”
After closing at the National Gallery of Art in January, The Land Carries Our Ancestors will travel to the New Britain Museum of American Art in Connecticut.
September 22, 2023- January 15, 2024
The Land Carries Our Ancestors: Contemporary Art by Native Americans
National Gallery of Art, Constitution Avenue NW & Seventh Street NW, Washington, D.C. 20408 (202) 737-4215, www.nga.gov
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