When a new wave of abstract expressionism gripped the art world in the mid-20th century centered in New York with Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, and others, few people knew about a community of Native American artists drawn together in Santa Fe, New Mexico, making significant but overlooked contributions to modern art.

This fall, the first major traveling exhibition of modern Native American art from the mid-1940s through the 1970s opened at Aurora University’s Schingoethe Center and showcases these artists, who explored new ways of artistic expression and challenged stereotypical expectations of American Indian art.

The exhibition, “Action/Abstraction Redefined,” is a collection of more than 50 works created by artists affiliated with the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, considered the birthplace of contemporary Native art. The collection includes paintings, sculptures, and works on paper, and draws inspiration not only from the abstract expressionist, color-field, and hard-edge painting movements that sprung up after World War II, but also from ancestral Native sources.

“IAIA artists did not have to look far for inspirations for their abstractions: abstract elements were part of Native art for thousands of years,” said Tatiana Lomahaftewa-Singer, curator of collections at the IAIA Musem of Contemporary Art and co-curator of the exhibition.

Tapping into Cultural Traditions

Many of the art pieces in the show were created by faculty and students who came to work and study at the IAIA. The school was created in 1962 out of the growing realization that a great loss of history and culture was impending as Native Americans were assimilating into mainstream culture. The institution gathered together students in their teens and 20s from dozens of tribal nations across the U.S. to come to Santa Fe and experiment and take risks with their art while also tapping into their own cultural traditions.

The IAIA instructors, who were accomplished modern artists themselves, encouraged students to look to their cultural heritage as a source of creativity and explore their identity as Native Americans. The artists drew inspiration from such traditions as beadwork, blanket designs, and animal hide painting, as well as the landscapes around them.

They also took part in the wider abstract expressionist movement at the time, often referred to as the New York School, that was best known for large-scale paintings with strong emotional content and techniques, such as laying canvases on the floor, “action painting,” or using house paint, that broke from the traditional.

The exhibition points out that the influence between the Native American artists and the New York School artists flowed both ways. Pollock drew inspiration from Native art throughout his career. In fact, after seeing Navajo sand painting demonstrations at the Museum of Modern Art, he began using his drip painting techniques on canvases spread on the floor instead of on an easel. Meanwhile, Native American artist Mike Zillioux created his own spin on the drip paint technique in his tongue-and-cheek painting entitled “The Day Jackson Pollock Became a Christian.”

“Abstract art practices have a long tradition in the artists’ cultures—centuries older than the beginning of abstract expressionism,” said Manuela Well-Off-Man, chief curator at the IAIA MoCNA and co-curator of the exhibition. “By hosting this exhibition, Aurora University helps tell a more inclusive story of American modernism.”

Before the IAIA was established, Native American artists were often discouraged from connecting their heritage when creating art, said the curators. By bringing students together from diverse tribal nations and giving them the freedom to embrace and explore the meaning of their own culture, the IAIA fostered a sense of belonging and sparked change.

“We are excited to bring this rare show to the Chicago area,” said Natasha Ritsma, director of the Schingoethe Center and an instructor of museum studies at AU. “Our mission at the museum is to celebrate artistic excellence and cultural diversity in American art. This exhibition showcases a pivotal moment in Native American art history.”

“Action/Abstraction Redefined” began as an installation at the MoCNA in 2017. It turned into a traveling exhibition in 2022 with support from the Art Bridges Foundation, a nonprofit established by billionaire Walmart heiress Alice Walton, founder of the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Arkansas. Art Bridges works with partner institutions to develop traveling exhibitions that bring American art to a wider public across the country.

AU received an Art Bridges grant to bring the exhibition to the Schingoethe Center, the fifth stop on the exhibition’s six-city tour. The show is scheduled to run from Oct. 2 through Dec. 15 at the Schingoethe Center before traveling to the Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts in Little Rock in February.

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Tags: Action/Abstraction Redefined, Alice Walton, Aurora, Manuela Well-Off-Man, Mike Zillioux, Natasha Ritsma, Schingoethe Center Aurora University, Tatiana Lomahaftewa-Singer