Curators Mindy N. Besaw and Jami C. Powell take you deeper into artistic territory with the exhibition Knowing the West at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art.
In C&I’s August/September “Artistry of the West” issue, one of the features came courtesy of the curators of the exhibition Knowing the West, which originated at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas. Co-curators Mindy Besaw, Crystal Bridges’ curator of American art, and Jami Powell (Osage), curator of Indigenous art at the Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth, present more than 120 historic works by Native American and non-Native American artists in the exhibition, which included textiles, baskets, paintings, pottery, sculpture, beadwork, saddles, and prints.
Dorothy Brett (American, Born in England, 1883 – 1977); Desert Indian; 1932/1937; Oil on canvas; 40 x 40 inches; Tia Collection; Santa Fe, New Mexico (PHOTOGRAPHY: James Hart Photography).
Their special “tour” of the exhibition for the C&I article showcases a dozen items from the groundbreaking show, on view September 14, 2024 through January 27, 2025. Following the run at Crystal Bridges, the show will travel to two additional venues and will be accompanied by a fully illustrated book published by Rizzoli Electa.
Press materials for the show state that “Whether informed by lived experience or popular culture, American often feel they ‘know the West.’ Knowing the West honors and expands those impressions.”
Here are some highlights from our conversation with co-curators Besaw and Powell about Knowing the West.
Cowboys & Indians: What was fun and special about curating this exhibition?
Crystal Bridges: Knowing the West is deeply collaborative. Not only is the exhibition co-curated, but we also worked with a seven-member interdisciplinary curatorial advisory council to shape the checklist and vision for the exhibition. The catalog for the exhibition reflects multiple voices and perspectives by featuring 21 authors. For both of us, it has been enlightening, overwhelming, and a lot of fun learning from one another and our advisors and colleagues throughout this process.
C&I: What’s something surprising that you learned?
Crystal Bridges: H. Wilson and Company is thought to be the first Black-owned business established in Texas. In 1869, following emancipation, freed Black men Hiram, James, Wallace, Andrew, and George Wilson applied years of training and work as enslaved potters into forming their own business. This story of resilience and creativity is only one example of the many new-to-us stories about art of the American West that we learned in the research around the exhibition. Examples of their pottery are included in the exhibition.
C&I: What aspects of the artworks in the exhibition are most inspiring to you?
Crystal Bridges: The immense variety of artworks in the exhibition. The American West is complicated with cultures and artists richly intertwined — there are so many more stories to tell, which keeps the West relevant, exciting, and interesting today. We are facing a particularly difficult moment in U.S. social history, one in which it seems that we are more divided than ever. The immense variety of works in the exhibition and the stories they reveal provide a space for us to grapple with complexity in meaningful and productive ways. We have been inspired by these stories, and we hope our audiences will be, too.
Chiura Obata (American, Born in Japan, 1885 – 1975); El Capitan; From World Landscape Series “America;” 1931; Color woodcut on paper; 15⅝ x 11 inches; Smithsonian American Art Museum; Washington, D.C.; Gift of the Obata Family; 2000.76.24 (PHOTOGRAPHY: © Courtesy of the Chiura Obata Estate).
C&I: What one backstory about a specific work of art on your list of 12 for the magazine feature just wowed you?
Crystal Bridges: There are many Indigenous artists in this exhibition who were well-known in their communities, but whose names and identities are no longer known to us today because they were not recorded by those who acquired their artworks. Throughout the exhibition, we have used “artist once known” to acknowledge these highly skilled individuals who held significant roles within their families and communities. When at least little snippets of information remain with the object, it can be very exciting. Sadly, we no longer know her full name, but the Diné (Navajo) weaver Miranda’s name was recorded by the Women’s Committee who commissioned the work in advance of the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair. When the stories remain connected to the artworks, it adds such rich context.
C&I: The press materials about the exhibition talk about showing an “inclusive” American West. What is meant by that?
Crystal Bridges: Art of the West is so often presented in simplified and binary terms — such as “cowboys and Indians” — which does little to embrace the multiplicity of more than 550 Native nations in present-day United States, let alone artworks made by European-American women, Black artists, and New Mexican Hispanic artists.
C&I: Jami, as a Native American curator of this exhibition, what’s important to you to communicate about the Indigenous experience and Indigenous creative output?
Jami C. Powell: In addition to highlighting the multiplicity of Indigenous experiences in “the West,” we have paid significant attention to sharing the authority and power of women makers. Most of the Native American artworks in the exhibition were made by women, who we honor for their artistry, skills, and cultural knowledge.
C&I: Mindy, as an expert on Western art, what are your thoughts about the pieces in this exhibition and their place in the “canon” of American art?
Mindy Besaw: I’m hopeful that the exhibition, taken as a whole, demonstrates that the “canon” is not the best benchmark for American art. By exhibiting artworks in a variety of media and by including a range of makers, this exhibition aims to question and flatten hierarchies in American art. In fact, this approach can serve as a model for how to re-think and re-present American art broadly.
Find out more about the Knowing the West exhibition and Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art at crystalbridges.org.
HEADER IMAGE: Nellie Two Bear Gates (Iháƞktȟuƞwaƞna Dakhóta, Standing Rock Reservation, 1854 – 1935); Suitcase; 1880 – 1910; Bead, hide, metal, oilcloth, and thread; 12½ x 17¹¹⁄₁₆ x 10¼ inches; Minneapolis Institute of Arts; The Robert J. Ulrich Works of Art Purchase Fund; 2010.19 (PHOTOGRAPHY: Minneapolis Institute of Art).
