North American Native Arts
Lure at AMNH
By Jan Aaron
Can 500 beautiful
objects of Native North American jewelry and art capture
the minds of NY kids? You bet. The American Museum of Natural
History's (AMNH) new exhibit “Totems to Turquoise” is
proving a crowd-pleaser for eight and nine year olds and giving
older visitors something to think about. The stunning exhibition
at the AMNH until July 10, 2005 features a dazzling array of
historic and contemporary jewelry and artifacts that celebrate
the beauty, power and symbolism of Native North American arts.
“To prepare for our visit here, we asked youngsters to bring something
of their own to class and research its history,” said Eve Steele, a student
teacher at PS 29 in Brooklyn.
“To organize this exhibition, we drew from AMNH holdings as well as
other museums and private collections,” said Peter M. Whiteley, curator
of North American ethnology at the museum. “Paving the way was the jewelry
exchange program which, for the first time, allowed Northwest and Southwest
artists to visit and view each other's work and share techniques and histories,” added
Lois Sherr Dubin, an independent curator.
The “Introductory Gallery” presents key themes via arresting jewelry
and artifacts. Here are explanations of cultural traditions and other facts
about the Northwest and Southwest via diverse objects. For example, a Katsina
design bracelet by Southwest Hopi artist Charles Loloma, using a composition
of straight lines and right angles, contrasts with a bracelet by Northwest
master Haida artist Bill Reid made of hammered gold depicting figures with
characteristic U-shapes, fluid curving lines. The show's artists also appear
on several video monitors in their studios talking about their work. Dominating
the show are forty vitrines, each with a “Look Closely” circle
instructing the viewer to seek one of the objects in each array.
Among the outstanding Southwestern
examples on display is Jesse Monongya's modern necklace made of stones from
the world over. “It links all of us together,” said
Monongya, an award winning Navajo artist and advisor to the show. Jim Hart, another
show advisor and Hereditary Chief of the Haida Nation, remembered a great aunt
telling him as a child how valuable Haida art was. “Then, I took it for
granted,” he said. Now the artist views it as Haida language. Hart's jewelry
is vivid. He also carved the totem pole for the show. Dempsey Bob, a Tlingit
from Southeast Alaska, features his necklace of 30 tiny gold frogs with a moonstone
clasp. The piece drew oohs and ahs from small fry. “It was worth about
$150,000 when I made it, but much more now that gold has gone up,” explained
the artist to a youngster who replied an astonished “Wow!”#
