The New York Historical announced yesterday that it will receive a major bequest of modern and contemporary works by Native American artists from board chair Dr. Agnes Hsu-Tang and her husband, Oscar Tang. The bequest includes pieces by more than 100 artists of Indigenous heritage, from early 20th-century potter Nampeyo of Hano (Tewa) to contemporary painter and sculptor Jeffrey Gibson (Choctaw/Cherokee).
The promised gift coincides with the 250th anniversary of the United States.
Louise Mirrer, president and CEO of the New York Historical, said in a statement, “This gift and the accompanying milestone exhibition further exemplify Agnes’s institutional vision as board chair, which began with the critically acclaimed 2023 exhibition ‘Kay WalkingStick/Hudson River School,’ to foreground Indigenous cultural expressions and advance an artistic and historical discourse that illuminates the integral role of Indigenous histories in the shaping of the United States.”
The New York Historical will celebrate the bequest with the exhibition “House Made of Dawn: Art by Native Americans 1880 to Now, Selections from the Hsu-Tang Collection,” which will be on view from April 22 through August 2. Organized by Wendy Nālani E. Ikemoto (Native Hawaiian), NYH vice president and chief curator, the show will feature works in a range of mediums, starting with late 19th-century and early 20th-century artists such as ceramist Maria Martinez (San Ildefonso), illustrator Angel De Cora (Ho-Chunk), and poet and opera composer Zitkala-Ša (Yankton Dakota).
The presentation will also introduce Flatstyle painters like Gerónima Montoya (Ohkay Owingeh) and the Kiowa Six; mid-20th century masters Oscar Howe (Yanktonai Dakota) and George Morrison (Ojibwe); photographer Lee Marmon (Laguna), whose work will be seen for the first time in a New York museum; Jaune Quick-to-See-Smith (Salish) and Emmi Whitehorse (Navajo), founders of the collective Grey Canyon Artists (1977–1981); and faculty and students of Santa Fe’s Institute of American Indian Arts, inaugurated in 1962.
Below are eight works from the Agnes Hsu-Tang and Oscar Tang promised gift.
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Diné Weaver, USA flag, late 19th century
Image Credit: The New York Historical, Promised gift of Agnes HsuTang and Oscar Tang, The Hsu-Tang Collection. In the late 1800s, Diné (Navajo) weavers often incorporated American symbols into their work to appeal to traders and non-Native buyers. Rather than faithful copies, these renderings frequently took liberties with color and design in creative, possibly ironic ways.
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Nampeyo of Hano, Untitled, late 19th or early 20th century
Image Credit: The New York Historical, Promised gift of Agnes Hsu-Tang and Oscar Tang, The Hsu-Tang Collection. Ceramist Nampeyo of Hano (Tewa-Hopi, ca. 1859–1942) used ancient techniques to make her pottery, taking her forms and designs from shards found at the 15th-century ruins on First Mesa, where her husband was employed by archaeologist J. Walter Fewkes. Today Nampeyo is considered one of the greatest of the Hopi potters; in 2010 one of her works sold for $350,000, a world record for Southwest American Indian pottery.
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Lee Marmon, White Man’s Moccasins, 1954
Image Credit: Collection of Agnes Hsu-Tang and Oscar Tang, The Hsu-Tang Collection. Lee Marmon (Laguna Pueblo, 1925–2021) began his career as a photographer in 1947, when his father suggested he start taking pictures of the elders and other members of his Laguna Pueblo, New Mexico, community. His subsequent career included work for Time magazine and the Saturday Evening Post, as well as a stint as the official photographer for the Bob Hope Desert Classic Golf Tournament in Palm Springs. Of this photograph of Laguna Pueblo resident Jeff Sousea, Marmon once wrote that he titled it White Man’s Moccasins because people expecting stereotypical images of Native Americans kept asking why the subject was wearing Keds instead of Native footwear.
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Valjean McCartey Hessing, But We Wear Peace Medals, 1974
Image Credit: The New York Historical, Promised gift of Agnes Hsu-Tang and Oscar Tang, The Hsu-Tang Collection. As a young woman, Valjean McCarty Hessing (Choctaw, 1934–2006) taught herself Flatstyle, an intertribal Native American painting movement originally inspired by Art Deco and Plains Indian ledger drawings. Flatstyle painters traditionally depicted Native customs or historic events; the work here appears to comment on the “peace medals” awarded to tribal leaders in America’s early years, now associated with the betrayal of trust.
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Fritz Scholder, Patriotic Indian, 1975
Image Credit: The New York Historical, Promised gift of Agnes Hsu-Tang and Oscar Tang, The Hsu-Tang Collection. Artwork copyright © Agent of the Estate of Fritz Scholder and the Collection of Fritz Scholder. Like his teacher Wayne Thiebaud, Fritz Scholder (La Jolla Band of Luiseño Indians, 1939–2005) combined Pop Art and Abstract Expressionism in his work; he is best known for his series of “Indian” paintings, which depict the realities of contemporary Native American life—at times in abject or grotesque ways. Scholder was a controversial figure not only on account of his art, which some found exploitative, but also because he was known to say that he was not Indian, though he was in fact an enrolled member of the Luiseño tribe.
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Benjamin L. West , No DAPL, 2016
Image Credit: The New York Historical, Promised Gift of Agnes Hsu-Tang and Oscar Tang, The Hsu-Tang Collection. Artwork copyright © Benjamin West. In 2016 and 2017 the Dakota Access Pipeline project sparked protests organized by #NODAPL, an Indigenous-led grassroots campaign. This photo, taken by Native American artist and photographer Benjamin L. West (Southern Cheyenne/Mvskoke Creek/Otoe Missouria), captures protesters at Standing Rock Reservation in North Dakota.
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Zoë Marieh Urness, Raven Tells His Story in the Fog, 2021
Image Credit: The New York Historical, Promised gift of Agnes Hsu-Tang and Oscar Tang, The Hsu-Tang Collection. Artwork copyright © Zoë Urness. In 2014 Pulitzer Prize–nominated photographer Zoë Urness (Tlingit/Cherokee, b. 1984) began her “Native Americans Keeping Traditions Alive” series, which depict Indigenous people in traditional clothing and settings. This sepia print from the series depicts Tlingit dancer Gene Tagaban posing on a gigantic tree stump in a ceremonial Raven costume and mask.
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Kent Monkman, Study for wîcihitowin (helping each other), 2024
Image Credit: Collection of Agnes Hsu-Tang and Oscar Tang, The Hsu-Tang Collection. Artwork copyright © Kent Monkman. Kent Monkman (Cree, b. 1965) subverts the styles of Hudson River School landscapes, Edward Curtis’s photographic portraits of Native Americans, and Eugene Delacroix’s realist figuration to expose suppressed histories of Native American life. This work is from his “Knowledge Keepers” series of paintings, which focuses on children in the notorious American and Canadian Indigenous residential schools.
