Many people, from tourists to collectors to scholars, have enjoyed visiting Southwestern trading posts over the years. One of the most vibrant arts to be found there are Navajo woven textiles. These weavings are the work of largely modest and unassuming women (with the occasional man at times) who pursue their creativity with the sales assistance of traders. This relationship is the offshoot of the trading post as a business serving local Navajos, dating back to late 19th-century frontier commerce. While many trading posts have closed over the years, the visitor to the select few still active can experience fine textiles rendered in historical regional styles. While Indian arts dealers in urban locales also carry such weavings, the would-be collector and enthusiast encounters real history when visiting these posts.
We have spent much time on the Navajo reservation and its borders over the last 30-odd years. During this period many working posts have closed, moved or morphed into art galleries. Trading posts came in for much criticism in the turbulent 1970s when the Federal Trade Commission held contentious hearings over the fairness and viability of the pawn system. Many posts closed or became convenience stores. Those that survived were either national historic sites like the Hubbell Trading Post or working businesses in rural areas which served their local population well.
Our interest in surviving trading posts started in the late 1980s, and we were fortunate enough to be able to purchase from several famous posts which closed soon afterward. The places we visited were the catalysts for the development of significant regional styles which have the status of being both historical art and living art.
Denne historien er fra April - May 2020-utgaven av Native American Art Magazine.
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Denne historien er fra April - May 2020-utgaven av Native American Art Magazine.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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Weaving History into Art
The legacy of Cherokee artist Shan Goshorn is honored during an exhibition at the Gilcrease Museum.
Visual Voices
Briscoe Western Art Museum hosts a traveling exhibition dedicated to contemporary Chickasaw artwork through January 18.
Through the Kaleidoscope
The beauty of color and design are on full display in the exhibition Through the Kaleidoscope at Exhibit C Native Gallery & Gifts in Oklahoma City.
New Horizons
A new Native American-owned art gallery is set to open near the end of the year in Buffalo, New York, in the middle of the Allentown historic district.
Keeping Art Alive
Galleries and dealers come together to bring World Tribal and Native American Art to homes through a virtual event.
Nacimientos
Every year near the holiday season, Adobe Gallery in Santa Fe, New Mexico, holds its Native American Nacimientos exhibition.
Expanded Audience
Cherokee Art Market welcomes collectors from all over the globe to its website for a virtual event from December 7 to 21.
Larger Than Memory
The Heard Museum presents a large collection of contemporary art from Indigenous North America.
GOOD MEDICINE
Navajo jeweler Boyd Tsosie brings his life and culture into his art.
Charging Ahead
On view now at King Galleries in Santa Fe, New Mexico, is Charging Forward, a new two-artist show featuring the pottery of Kaa Folwell and the paintings of Derek No-Sun Brown.