Oct, 16, 2020
Major GiftsCollectionsAmerican and Western American Art
New initiative at Phoenix Art Museum showcases Indigenous perspectives on art of the American West
Reframed project to bring underrepresented voices into Museum’s galleries to provide interpretations on works by American artists
PHOENIX (October 16, 2020) –Phoenix Art Museum has launched Reframed, a new and ongoing initiative supported by the Henry Luce Foundation that invites artists and scholars from communities historically underrepresented in museum spaces to contribute their perspectives and knowledge on works in the Museum’s American art collection. To inaugurate the project, commissioned gallery labels authored by Ninabah Winton (Diné/Navajo), current Andrew W. Mellon Fellow at The Heard Museum, and Velma Kee Craig (Diné/Navajo), weaver and former Andrew W. Mellon Fellow at The Heard Museum, have been installed in the Museum’s American art galleries to provide Indigenous perspectives on works in the collection. Some of these works include Diego Rivera’s Hilando (Winding Thread) (1936) and Raymond Jonson’s Canyon de Chelly (1928 and 1972). A poem by local writer Anna Flores also appears in the galleries alongside a painting of Christopher Columbus to prompt deeper consideration on traditional narratives regarding the European conquest of the Americas.
“The Reframed project is an important part of the Museum’s ongoing efforts to welcome underrepresented voices into our galleries while invigorating and contextualizing an important collection area to help expand our audiences’ understanding of the Southwest,” said Tim Rodgers, PhD, the Museum’s Sybil Harrington Director and CEO. “It is also a significant opportunity for Phoenix Art Museum to continue using its platform to increase the visibility of communities that have long been excluded from museums and various art histories.”
Reframed was conceptualized by Betsy Fahlman, PhD, the Museum’s adjunct curator of American art, who joined the Museum in 2016 and immediately began thinking of ways to offer different interpretations on the Museum’s collection. “I knew I could not make immediate changes to the types of works in the collection, which largely represent perspectives of European-North American male artists who worked in the 19th and 20th centuries,” Fahlman said, “but what I could do was offer and make space for new perspectives on what those artworks acknowledge, what they neglect to portray, and what they provide from a historical standpoint.”
After the Museum received a prestigious grant from the Henry Luce Foundation in 2018 in support of American art initiatives, Fahlman saw the opportunity to bring to life an idea she had first had when visiting the Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA). At the time, DIA had a Hudson River School landscape on view that featured an Indigenous person, and alongside the painting were three interpretations—one written by the museum’s curator of American art, one by the curator of European art, and one by the curator of Native-American art. Fahlman further developed her idea to bring more diverse voices into the galleries in 2019, after visiting the exhibition Color Riot! How Color Changed Navajo Textiles at The Heard Museum, curated by a team including Ninabah Winton and Velma Kee Craig, both of whom are Diné/Navajo. With funding from the Henry Luce Foundation, Fahlman invited Craig and Winton to write the first set of commissioned labels for the Reframed project at Phoenix Art Museum.
Craig and Winton were given the opportunity to interpret any four works of their choice from the Museum’s American art collection. Craig’s interpretations, now on view in the Museum’s North Wing, offer perspectives on Diego Rivera’s Hilando (Winding Thread) (1936); Willard Franklin Midgette’s Processing Sheep (1976); Joseph Henry Sharp’s Studio Interior (A Corner of My Studio) (c. 1925); and Native Son (2019), a video on the life of Indigenous rodeo star Derrick Begay. While her texts on three of the four works draw on her personal experience as a Navajo weaver and teaching artist, as well as her memories attending the rodeo with her father when she was a young girl, Craig’s perspective on Sharp’s Studio Interior (A Corner of My Studio) explores stereotypes of Indigenous peoples propagated through the centuries and the artifice often present in the depiction of Native Americans in works by non-Indigenous artists.
“I’ve always known that specific misinterpretations of Indigenous peoples have occurred because of propaganda and the U.S. government’s desire to portray us in a certain manner so that the overtaking of our cultures is validated,” Craig said. “In a lot of photographs, an Indigenous person has been put in front of the lens and captured in a way that makes people assume that individual is in their natural, normal state. Sharp, however, reveals that there was staging going on, that his work is a presentation and something performative.”
Winton’s interpretations, also on view in the Museum’s North Wing, instead offer deeper context to John Mix Stanley’s Chain of Spires Along the Gila River (1855); Albert Groll’s Painted Desert—Arizona (1915); Harry B. Wagoner’s Squaw Peak (20th century); and Raymond Jonson’s Canyon de Chelly (1928 and 1972). Jonson’s work in particular holds personal meaning for Winton.
“The painting portrays an ancestral homeland for us,” she said. “It’s a place my mom has many stories about, including when one of the women in our family—Greasewood Woman—was abducted by Mexican raiders in the 1860s and escaped. There’s just a lot of personal history there.”
In addition to new interpretations by Craig and Winton, Phoenix-based writer Anna Flores contributed a poem entitled “1492” to the Reframed initiative. The written work accompanies the painting Columbus Before the Council of Salamanca (1847) by William Henry Powell and encourages reflection on the ramifications of colonial expansion and conquest.
“Reframed would not be possible without the generous grant from the Henry Luce Foundation, which has given me the opportunity to rethink how we interpret and talk with our audiences about work from the Museum’s American art collection,” said Fahlman, who plans to expand the scope of Reframed. “My hope is to continue commissioning labels by other scholars from underrepresented groups—to keep adding necessary voices to the conversation—so that more members of our community can visit the Museum and recognize themselves here in some way.”
The Reframed project at Phoenix Art Museum is supported by the Henry Luce Foundation. To request interviews or high-resolution photography, please contact the Museum’s Communications Office at 602.307.2003 or samantha.andreacchi@phxart.org.
About Phoenix Art Museum
Since 1959, Phoenix Art Museum has provided millions of guests with access to world-class art and experiences in an effort to ignite imaginations, create meaningful connections, and serve as a brave space for all people who wish to experience the transformative power of art. Located in Phoenix’s Central Corridor, the Museum is a vibrant destination for the visual arts and the largest art museum in the southwestern United States. Each year, more than 300,000 guests engage with critically acclaimed national and international exhibitions and the Museum’s collection of more than 20,000 works of American and Western American, Asian, European, Latin American, modern and contemporary art, and fashion design. The Museum also presents a comprehensive film program, live performances, and educational programs designed for visitors of all ages, along with vibrant photography exhibitions made possible through the Museum’s landmark partnership with the Center for Creative Photography, University of Arizona. To learn more about Phoenix Art Museum, visit phxart.org, or call 602.257.1880.