Eugene Thaw and his American Indian Art Collection

(Eastern Ojibwa (Anishinaabe) canoe model with figure - image courtesy of Fenimore art museum - http://www.fenimoreartmuseum.org/files/fenimore/collections/thaw/exhibit1/e10024b.htm)

Today was the third day of The Otsego Institute for Native American Art History, and I had the privelege of listening to Euguene Thaw talk about the dedication and passion that he has brought to his collection of American Indian Art which now resides at the Fenimore Art Museum. There are many art pieces from various Native communities across North America: the Northwest Coast, Plains, Woodlands and southern states as well. The open storage system used by the Fenimore is truly of great benefit to see and study the many beautiful and finely-crafted objects in the collection. I will include some notes from Thaw's talk below:
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The Fenimore Art Collection - shows respect to Aboriginal art, as treasures -
I must have some sort of DNA to collect, I had to use my eyes to make decisions, just tourist art now, in my era there were some interesting dealers and good material, I had an advisor (Ted Co) had been director of Nelson-Aitkins museum, retired to Santa Fe and he had brought his examples, he did show called “Sacred Circles” in 1970s

I began to hit the shops - my first experience was to focus on decorative things - I began anything with flagged material, mostly Sioux, violin case beaded. The Sioux would bead anything - beaded like mad.
Sometimes beading was much more identifiable like the Crow, I’ve since forgotten most of it, since I haven’t been collecting much. Once in a while I surprise them.. I’ve lost some of my expertise.. In my most active heyday I bought a piece every 3 days for 10 years. I had some chances to buy whole collections - an art dealer named Richard Faigan (gallery in London and NY) called me - these pieces belonged to the Earl of Elgin, tucked away in the castle attic, in excellent condition. He was governor general of Canada in 1847 - 1852 - it started with a club, with a beautiful head with feather attached, it was on the cover of the Spirit Sings. It was a sensational object for a museum to show. The museum in Scotland bought it. I bought 18 things, in this collection. They are paradigms, models for that period b/c of their excellent condition. The Taylor museum wanted to concentrate on its Southwest Material - both furniture and Indian Pottery, Pueblo material, they wanted to get rid of NWCoast objects. I have the core of the Taylor collection - seminal pieces.

Part of the ethos of collecting - you are never always right. If there is no mistake, you are not a real collector. If there is no risk that turns out badly, then you are not a real collector.

What is it going to take for the world at large to finally get it that Native American Art is a world class art that belongs to the milieu?
Unfortunately, the thing that has to go along with this is money. The other thing that gets people’s attention are prices - nowadays - attention getting prices - 1 million dollars is not what it was but it still gets your attention. A great NWCoast mask gets 1 million dollars today. We live in a celebrity culture so it has a good side also - its getting people’s attention - people in American life respect what costs a lot.

Ethical concerns with collecting Native American Art?
I didn’t find any ethical dimensions to what I was doing - I can’t think of one at the moment.

Drawings were my first collection. In 1946, I use to go see the Phillips collection (Washington)? It was wonderful to spend weekend looking at those things. I studied art history at colombia. I decided to become a dealer - as a dealer I had no money but I had a big room upstairs. I gave Joan Mitchell her first show, American Abstract Artist - de kooning. The first picture I sold was a Kandinsky.


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Do you have a collection? Have you ever visited the Fenimore Art Museum and the Thaw Collection? Feel free to leave a comment below. I hope to post more notes from the conference tommorow!

Dancing Through Life with Barry Ace

Like an adept dance partner, Barry Ace’s series Meditations on Memory - A Metaphysical Dance leads the viewer through time, space and memory, shifting the steps that we have taken in our lives, both physical and spiritual. Ace’s art references both his life as an Odawa person and also the collective experiences of Aboriginal people throughout the last several centuries. For Ace, photographs and other objects found in his travels provide the impetus for his creations. Fragments of material culture, like beading, and motifs, are reconceptualised by Ace and take on new layers of meaning in his work. These once disparate things, brought together in his work, allow Ace to parody representations of indigenous people and draw attention to western conceptions of viewing and indigenous ways of knowing, thereby complicating relationships between the viewer and the artist.

Dance plays a very significant role in Ace’s life: he performs the Southern Straight Dance along the Pow-Wow Trail as a celebration of his Odawa culture and heritage and this in turn informs other aspects of his artistic process, namely his two-dimensional works. This type of dance is a slow consistent movement performed by members of the Ponca, Osage and several other indigenous peoples of North America. While moving, a Straight dancer may trace their arm through the air, in the process creating patterns of negative and positive space unique to the individual. Similarly, in Ace’s multi-media works, he creates a positive space within which the viewer may develop their own aesthetic interpretation. When Ace dances or creates a piece of art, his focus becomes solely on his expression. The objects and people around him become secondary, as his art articulates a liminal moment, moving between the physical and mental spheres. Viewers are invited to participate in these spheres of meaning through creating their own narratives. A closer look at several of the pieces in the series draws the viewer into these works, bringing us full circle into the artistic practice of Ace.

Art is a tool of healing and catharsis in this series, which visually articulates sacred elements of Anishinaabe and Odawa culture, a form of visual medicine. Megis (2009) combines several elements: a fragment of a Midewiwin drawing, four porcupine quills, four shells and four lines created by a paint brush, drawing attention to the significance of natural materials. The shell itself is a part of the origin and migration stories and was used in sacred ceremonies of the Midewiwin, a group of healers that called on supernatural forces to aid in mending the ills of Anishinaabek. The green lines are also colours of healing. The porcupine quill - is a natural material that has been used for centuries to decorate clothing, bags and leggings of the Aninshinaabek in the Great Lakes area. All these elements create a contemporary spiritual draught, along a continuum that was initiated by the Midewiwin ages ago and is carried on today by artists like Ace. Two Kinds of Medicine (2009) juxtaposes a photograph of eagle feathers (sacred to many indigenous peoples), with a set of porcupine quills as well as a metal jingle, from a jingle dress. All three of these objects were and are used in the decoration of material culture. The circle drawn around the jingle hints at the potential of dance and these materials to bring the viewer into balance with the physical and spiritual elements of the universe, to create harmony and promote healing.

A green parrot feather seems to float on the breeze as ‘The Flyer’ , an image of an indigenous man from the 17th century blows it towards the medicine stick, made of a visual text written in Aninshinaabe and English in They are Sailing Away on the Breeze (2009). The dance ‘stick’ communicates in two languages and visually represents the importance of language to cultural survival. Ace notes, “the ability to speak your language reinforces the fact that there are things in this reality that have spirits and those that do not.” The process of dance, represented by the stick, unites these spirits in a universal language.

In his self-portrait, Odawa-Osage, (2008) (pictured above) Ace is juxtaposed against an Osage warrior. The red line placed between the two portraits is the dance stick itself, while the presence of both a crow feather and medicine bundle suggest the sacred nature of performance. When the Odawa were forcibly removed from their land after the war of 1812, many were relocated to Oklahoma and shared space with the Ponca and Osage people there. Today, Ace dances the Straight Style dance in honour of his ancestors that learned those dances in the southern state, thus the image along with his other works in this series create relationships that transcend many boundaries, solidifying the junction between peoples over time and across nations.


(image courtesy of Barry Ace)
Barry Ace, Odawa-Osage, 2008.

Busy Busy Busy !

Hello All,
I have been very busy these past few weeks with school work. Today I defended my thesis and passed so that is a relief!
I'm heading to the Otsego institute, Cooperstown next week for a week long conference on Aboriginal art, curatorship, theories of the object, collecting and connoisseurship held at the Fenimore Art Museum. I'm looking forward to presenting my thoughts on Metis identity and art and also to exploring Cooperstown and the collection of Native American Art at the Thaw Collection.
Have you ever been to Cooperstown? How did you like it?
Extra ! Extra! Later this week I hope to post an essay on Barry Ace's artistic practice. I will also be having a guest blogger contribute her thoughts on Onkwehonwe Corn Husk Dolls so stay tuned!
G

http://www.fenimoreartmuseum.org/files/fenimore/collections/thaw/exhibit1/e10092b.htm
(image courtesy of fenimore art museum - Metis beaded bag)

What does being Métis mean to you?

Based on my poll survey and on research I am currently undertaking, there are a wide variety of definitions and also there are many ambivalencies surrounding the term Métis . I have found that when I say "Métis" to people they generally think of Louis Riel and the Métis as existing solely in Western Canada. However, there is a large population of Métis in Ontario, who are recognized by the federal government as the Métis Nation of Ontario (MNO). The Métis in central Canada developed on an alternate trajectory to the Métis in the west, their identities were not stable throughout the shifting and racist times of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. Today, however, there is a resurgence of Métis pride and identity paralleling many indigenous movements for rights and cultural freedom!

Feel free to add a comment, agree or disagree with my very brief summary...



(image courtesy of Metis Nation of Ontario website - www.metisnation.org