Native American Art Advocate Ralph T. Coe Dies

Ralph T. Coe, 1929-2010
Photo: NY Times

Ralph T. Coe, a former art museum director and a private collector who played a central role in the revival of interest in Native American art, died September 14th at his home in Sante Fe, New Mexico. He was 81. 

Ted Coe, as he was known, was director of the The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, Missouri, from 1977 until 1982. But as an art student in 1955 he was transfixed by a small Northwest coast totem pole that he spotted in a shop on Lexington Avenue in Manhattan. It was the start of a 55-year fascination that Mr. Coe would share through major exhibitions he curated, his writings and eventually his donations.

“He was kind of the beginning player, enormously significant in the growth of appreciation of Native American art in the 20th century,” Julie Jones, the curator in charge of the arts of Africa, Oceania and the Americas at the The Metropolitan Museum of Art, said on Thursday.

After seeing that totem pole, Mr. Coe began collecting and studying Native American art, ultimately assembling a collection of more than 1,100 objects, some of which dated from prehistoric times. It included ceremonial and utilitarian pieces, among them kachina dolls, decorated blankets, war bonnets, baskets, masks, pipes, ceramic jars, weapons and lavishly beaded garments.

To gather the objects, Mr. Coe roamed from reservation to reservation in the United States and Canada, learning about their symbolism and the techniques of their artisans. He lived with the Passamaquoddy of Maine, the Winnebago of Wisconsin, the Osage of Oklahoma, the Shoshone of Wyoming and other tribes.

Mr. Coe’s research culminated in two landmark exhibitions. The first, “Sacred Circles: 2,000 Years of North American Indian Art,” opened at the Hayward Gallery in London in 1976 and traveled to the Nelson-Atkins a year later. The second, “Lost and Found Traditions: Native American Art, 1965-1985,” was the first major exhibition dedicated to the work of contemporary Native American artists. It was shown at the American Museum of Natural History and nine other museums beginning in 1986.

By then, Mr. Coe had resigned as director of the Nelson-Atkins to immerse himself in collecting and spending time on reservations.

“It was a beguiling world of color and visual excitement, of pungent and humorous people,” he said in 1986. “To me, the Indian world became the real world. I changed a pinstripe suit for a pair of jeans. I said, ‘I’m just not good anymore at 12 cocktail parties in 14 days. I want to take off.’ ”

Ralph Tracy Coe was born in Cleveland on Aug. 27, 1929, one of three children of Ralph and Dorothy Coe. His father, who owned an iron factory, was a collector of Impressionist paintings and a trustee of the Cleveland Museum of Art.

Mr. Coe, who is survived by a sister, received his bachelor’s degree from Oberlin College in 1953 and his master’s from Yale in 1958, both in art history. A year later he was working at what was then called the Nelson Gallery of Art.

In 2003 the Metropolitan Museum of Art mounted an exhibition, "The Responsive Eye: Ralph T. Coe and the Collecting of American Indian Art,"which placed on view a promised gift of nearly 200 works from Mr. Coe’s collection. They included works by 20th-century artists, an indication of his determination to show that Indian art is a living tradition.

“There is an idea of the dying American Indian, and we keep counting them out,” Mr. Coe said of the modern works. “But I keep wondering, if we have counted them out, why is all of this here?”

Source: NY Times

 The Responsive Eye: Ralph T. Coe and the Collecting of American Indian Art
Photo: Amazon

Art museum calls in tribal expert for work on tepee

One hundred twenty-five years ago, Standing Bear created the painted canvas tepee that has been the centerpiece of the Denver Art Museum's American Indian exhibit for the past two decades.

On Wednesday, under the direction of two tribal elders, the tepee was taken down for the renovation of the third floor of the north building.

"The renovation gives us a chance to rotate out artifacts," said museum spokeswoman Kristy Bassuener. "People can get to know new favorites."

Kiowa Nation elder John Emhoolah directed the disassembly, which required more than 10 people.

Emhoolah has disassembled thousands of tepees, Native Arts collection curator Nancy Blomberg said.

The museum needed his help because John Emhoolah, center, who is a member of the Kiowa nation, pulls a string out so it can be unwound from the top of a historic teepee as it is disassembled for cleaning.

"It is not a sacred object," she said. "We had elders come because there's a specific sequence in which you take it down."

Before the canvas cover could be rolled back, starting at each end along the angled wood poles, short wood pegs on the floor and the door latches had to be removed.

Then, together with the rolled-up canvas, the first of about 15 poles was taken off.

The structural heart of the tepee is a tripod of three poles tied together at the top. The other poles are interlaced outside of those with a separate rope. The rope was unwound by passing it around the tepee while people held onto the poles. They removed one pole at a time until they reached the final three, which were taken away still tied together.

The beige canvas is covered with detailed paintings of horses and tribal members. The tepee will be vacuumed and its surface will be cleaned. Next February, when the exhibit reopens, the tepee will return, Bassuener said.

About 50 of the current pieces will be brought out again, along with about 500 other objects from the museum's collection. There are around 18,000 artifacts in the Native Arts collection, Bassuener said.

"This is an opportunity to highlight the collection," Blomberg said. "And also to be able to show people the depth of the collection."

Source: The Denver Post
By: Sarah Horn

Native American Art at Bonhams & Butterfields June 7th in San Francisco

Highlights for June include the large and fine collection of early silver, turquoise, coral and shell jewelry from the Breitbart Collection, which includes Navajo, Hopi, Pueblo and Zuni bracelets, necklaces and a first-phase Navajo concha belt with eight oval silver conchas, expected to bring $18/28,000.

Click here for the complete catalogue listing.

Native Arts and Cultures Foundation Created

The US is taking steps to protect and promote its native cultural heritage with the formation of the Native Arts and Cultures Foundation. With $10 million start-up capital from the Ford Foundation, the foundation will provide grants to artists and arts organizations, support native arts leadership and team up with other organizations to increase financial supports for indigenous arts and cultures. In addition to the grant from the Ford Foundation, the Rumsey Bank of Wintun Indians have given $1.5 million with the initiation of a matching campaign, at which point they will donate another $1.5 million. This is the first fund of its kind in the US and represents a real victory to the native arts community.

The organization will be based in Portland, Oregon and has selected Tara Lulani Arquette, a native Hawaiian as its president and CEO. Prior to joining the Native Arts and Cultures Foundation, Arquette spent four years as CEO of the Native Hawaiian Hospitality Association, a private, nonprofit organization committed to supporting Hawaiian culture and arts in tourism.

W. Richard West Jr., the founding director emeritus of the Smithsonian’s American Indian Museum and a Ford trustee, said: “There need to be agencies and institutions that support native contemporary art and artists. For the most part, those agencies and institutions don’t exist.”

Most major media outlets have picked up this story in the last week and the New York Times has a great write up on the organization. There is so much need for the support of the native arts, we are just happy that the United States and several private organizations have recognized this need and helping to provide for their protection and support.

If you want to sign up to receive more information about the iniative, the Native Arts and Cultures Foundation has a newsletter that you can sign up for.

 

Dori Rootenberg

www.JacarandaTribal.com