New Acquisitions
Learn about a few of the artworks acquired by Crystal Bridges in 2020.
Pop Chalee (Merina Lujan) Enchanted Forest, Forest, ca. 1950 Mindy Besaw Curator, American Art and Director of Fellowships and Research
With the acquisition of 30 paintings and one sculpture by modern and contemporary Native American artists from the Bruce Hartman collection earlier this year, Crystal Bridges broadened its holdings of Native American art. These works expand our understanding of modern American art. In the early twentieth century, many of these artists built upon Native American artmaking traditions such as Plains hide painting and Pueblo pottery forms, creating works on paper and canvas to appeal to broad, non-Native audiences. American art instructor Dorothy Dunn established the Studio Art School at the federal government-run Santa Fe Indian School in 1932. Dunn encouraged her students to create works that depicted their communities and home life. Pop Chalee trained at the Studio Art School where she embraced Dunn’s so-called “flat painting” style while creating a radical new aesthetic. Her unconventional approach to space and imaginative color choices in Enchanted Forest yields a fantastical atmosphere.
Tse Tsan (Pablita Verlarde) Awataba Kiva Mural, Mural, 1981 Tse Tsan (Tewa for Golden Dawn) was the first full-time student to attend the Studio Art School and went on to have a long and accomplished career. In 1939, she was commissioned by the National Park Service under a grant from the Works Progress Administration (WPA) to depict scenes of traditional Pueblo life for the Bandelier National Monument. In her later paintings, like Awataba Kiva Mural, Mural, Tse Tsan used paints prepared from natural pigment to depict colorful figures with detailed patterned regalia likely associated with a Pueblo dance or ceremony.
CB COLLECTION & E XHIBITIONS
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