The Amon Carter Museum of American Art has long proudly showcased its works both created and inspired by Native Americans. However, this week, they welcome Indigenous Beauty: Masterworks of American Indian Art from the Diker Collection, a huge show of cultural treasures that promises to expand our understanding of Native American art.
The emphasis here is on diversity. The regalia of the Plains Indians is far different from the kachina dolls made by the Pueblo Indians in the Southwest. Different still are the ceremonial masks made by the Aleuts. The objects on display include Western baskets, sculptural objects from the eastern tribes, carved ivories from Alaska, and a striking portrait of Kiowa chiefs drawn on what appears to be school notebook paper. The show is divided into 11 sections to help you sort through the bewildering proliferation of cultures, languages, gods, and customs among the hundreds of tribes that once called this continent home.
The show contains objects previously displayed at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Smithsonian, but many others are showing in public for the first time. Having just come from the Seattle Museum of Art, the exhibit stays here through the summer.
Indigenous Beauty runs thru Sep 13 at Amon Carter Museum of American Art, 3501 Camp Bowie Blvd, FW. Admission is free. Call 817-738-1933.
