Rarely seen Native American Art at MFA Boston

Chief’s-style blanket | Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Rarely seen Native American Art at MFA Boston ‘Collecting Stories: Native American Art’, on view from April 14, 2018 through March 10, 2019, is the first of three MFA exhibitions highlighting new narratives in American Art, supported by the Henry Luce Foundation.]]>

Source: Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (MFA)

The exhibition focuses on works of Native American art that entered the collection in the decades after the MFA first opened to the public in 1876, many of which were donated by East Coast collectors who traveled to the Great Plains and Southwest in this period, often inspired by notions of “authentic” Indian life. As both works of art and souvenirs, these objects initially fit into the Museum’s educational mission to represent art in all media and from all cultures. However, Native American art became less visible in the galleries during the early 20th century, and like other encyclopedic art institutions, the MFA eventually lent or donated most of its holdings to ethnographic and archaeological museums.

“Collecting Stories: Native American Art” examines this moment in the MFA’s history, and seeks new ways to interpret Native American art and include voices of indigenous artists of the past and present. In conjunction with the exhibition, the Museum hosts a variety of programs with scholars and contemporary Native artists—several of whom were consulted regarding the interpretation and display of the objects on view—including a symposium on May 6, free with Museum admission and open to the public. “Collecting Stories: Native American Art”, on view in the Bernard and Barbara Stern Shapiro Gallery, is the first of three sequential exhibitions using works from the MFA’s collection to address critical themes in American art. Generously supported by the Henry Luce Foundation.

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