The first exhibition focusing on modern and contemporary Native American art at the Saint Louis Art Museum is now on display.
“Action/Abstraction Redefined: Modern Native Art, 1940s-1970s” expands the narrative of abstraction to include Native artists.
Fifteen years ago, the Saint Louis Art Museum (SLAM) presented “Action/Abstraction: Pollock, de Kooning and American Art, 1940-1976.” The new exhibition builds on and responds to the 2008 exhibit, with the current exhibit highlighting Native American artists and their influences.
The exhibit is organized by Santa Fe’s Museum of Contemporary Native Arts at the Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA), a Native American-led institution with a deep, focused collection. For its part, SLAM expanded the number of works in the touring exhibit from 50 to 90 to include pieces from national lenders and the museum’s own collection.
“’Action/Abstraction Redefined’ will help visitors to see our historic collection of Native American art in new ways, as vital sources for contemporary artists,” said SLAM associate curator of Native American art Alexander Marr, who curated the St. Louis presentation of the exhibition. “It will also help visitors to connect historic and contemporary Native art. As our collection of contemporary Native American art from last 30 years grows, this exhibition furnishes a critical middle chapter in the continuous history of artmaking by Indigenous North American peoples.”
In March 2023, SLAM purchased Fritz Scholder’s 1966 oil on canvas, “New Mexico #45.” Other recent acquisitions include works by Truman Lowe, Wendy Red Star, Dyani White Hawk and others.
The galleries of the exhibition are organized chronologically, focusing first on Indigenous studio artists’ experimentation with abstraction in the 1940s and ‘50s. Works by Lloyd Henri “Kiva” New, IAIA’s first artistic director in the early 1960s, are on display in the next few galleries, which also focus on the institute and its style of teaching that encourages experimentation with materials and media.
Later galleries discuss the avant-garde techniques of abstraction, including dripping, throwing, squirting and layering paint, as well as the emphasis on different media that was central to the IAIA. Final galleries show the impact the IAIA has had on a larger scale.
“Action/Abstraction Redefined: Modern Native Art, 1940s-1970s” is on view at the Saint Louis Art Museum through Sept. 3. Tickets are $12 (adults), $10 (seniors and students), $6 (children 6 to 12); the exhibit is free for members. For more information, visit slam.org.
