Emory University's Michael C. Carlos Museum has announced that it will host a extensive exhibition of native North American art, "Indigenous Beauty: Masterworks of American Indian Art from the Diker Collection," opening Oct. 10.
Organized by the American Federation of Arts, “Indigenous Beauty” features 122 works, including examples of basketry, pottery, sculpture, ivories, regalia and pictographic arts from tribes across the North American continent.
Credit: hpousner
Credit: hpousner
“We are extremely excited to mount our first major show of Native North American art,” Carlos curator Rebecca Bailey Stone said in the announcement. “An initiative was launched in 2012 to organize small shows in one gallery from this area, but this exhibition will impress everyone with its sheer breadth, diversity and beauty.”
“Indigenous Beauty” emphasizes three themes — diversity, beauty and knowledge — that relate both to the artworks’ original native contexts and to the ways in which the objects might be experienced by visitors in a contemporary museum setting. The exhibit is organized into 10 clusters based primarily on geographic and cultural factors.
Selections from the holdings of Manhattanites Charles and Valerie Diker have been presented at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (1998-2000) and the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian (2004-06), but this is the first traveling exhibition from their collection and features several recent acquisitions that have not been on public display before.
The show’s run will extend through the holidays, closing Jan. 3, 2016.
The Carlos currently has a related smaller show on view, "Spider Woman to Horned Serpent: Creation and Creativity in Native North American Art," also through Jan. 3, as well as a major exhibition from the National Museum of African Art at the Smithsonian, "African Cosmos: Stellar Arts" (through June 21).
571 S. Kilgo Circle N.E., Atlanta. 404-727-4282, www.carlos.emory.edu.
