NATIVE PROSPECTS
Indigeneity and Landscape
MAY 4-OCTOBER 27, 2024
In the New Studio
Overview
Native Prospects: Indigeneity and Landscape juxtaposes an Indigenous approach to the articulation of land with the American landscape paintings of Thomas Cole. The exhibition presents 19th-century paintings by Thomas Cole featuring Native figures, in context with Indigenous works of historic and cultural value, and artworks by contemporary Indigenous artists: Teresa Baker (Mandan/Hidatsa), Brandon Lazore (Onondaga, Snipe Clan), Truman T. Lowe (Ho-Chunk), Alan Michelson (Mohawk member of the Six Nations of the Grand River) and Kay WalkingStick (Cherokee).
Native Prospects is curated by Scott Manning Stevens, PhD / Karoniaktatsie (Akwesasne Mohawk), Associate Professor of Native American Studies and English at Syracuse University, where he is also Director of the Native American and Indigenous Studies Program and Founding Director of the Center for Global Indigenous Cultures and Environmental Justice.
The exhibition is accompanied by a catalogue with original essays by the curator and Gabrielle Tayac, PhD, (Piscataway) and Joseph Mizhakiiyaasige Zordan (Bad River Ojibwe). Additionally, the publication will feature writing and plates by featured artists Teresa Baker (Mandan/Hidatsa), Brandon Lazore (Onondaga, Snipe Clan), and Kay WalkingStick (Cherokee), as well as texts on Alan Michelson (Mohawk member of the Six Nations of the Grand River), by Clémence White, and Truman T. Lowe (Ho-Chunk), by Patricia Marroquin Norby, PhD, (Purépecha), Associate Curator of Native American Art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
After its debut at the Thomas Cole National Historic Site, the exhibition will travel to the Florence Griswold Museum, Old Lyme, CT (November 16, 2024-February 9, 2025) and Farnsworth Art Museum, Rockland, ME (March 7-July 6, 2025). The exhibition, its tour and the accompanying publication are organized by the Thomas Cole National Historic Site. The publication is produced in partnership with the Florence Griswold Museum.
Events
CURATOR’S TALK Sat, May 4 at 2:30 pm
Join Dr. Scott Manning Stevens for a discussion about the exhibition Native Prospects: Indigeneity and Landscape.
OPENING PARTY Sat, May 4, 4-6 pm
Become a member at thomascole.org/membership.
Exhibition Selection
Thomas Cole, Kaaterskill Falls, 1826, oil on canvas, 25¼ × 35¼ in. Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, CT, Bequest of Daniel Wadsworth, 1848.15
Truman T. Lowe (Ho-Chunk), Waterfall VIII, 2011, wood and metal fasteners, 82 × 80 × 64 in. Denver Art Museum, Native Arts acquisition fund, 2011.430A-N. © Truman T. Lowe
Thomas Cole, Indians Viewing Landscape, ca. 1840, oil on board, 6 × 7¼ in. Private Collection
Reproduction: Once-known maker, Powhatan’s Mantle, ca. 1600–1638, leather, shell, and sinew, 92½ × 63 in. Ashmolean Museum, Oxford University, Presented by Elias Ashmole, 1677, from the Tradescant Collection
Native Prospects: Indigeneity and Landscape is made possible through support from the Terra Foundation for American Art.
Major support is provided by David Bury & The Bay and Paul Foundations and the Warner Foundation.
The exhibition and publication are also supported by The Cranshaw Corporation, National Endowment for the Arts, Wyeth Foundation for American Art, Maurice D. Hinchey Hudson River Valley National Heritage Area, New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature, Becky Gochman, Patti Hanson, Greene County Cultural Fund, Kristin Gamble, National Trust Insurance Services, LLC, Bank of Greene County Charitable Fund, and the Kindred Spirits Society of the Thomas Cole National Historic Site.
Supported by a grant awarded to the Thomas Cole National Historic Site by New York State’s Empire State Development and the I LOVE NY Division of Tourism.
Cover Image: Kay WalkingStick (Cherokee), Thom, Where Are the Pocumtucks (The Oxbow), 2020, oil on panel, 24 × 48 in. Courtesy the artist and Hales Gallery, London and New York