Eighteenth Century Native American Art from the Great Lakes Region: A Legacy of Diplomacy, Warfare and Curiosity
Ruth B. Phillips, Canada Research Chair and Professor of Art History at Carleton University, Ottawa
Reception to follow at the Pomona College Museum of Art’s Native American Collection Study Room, Big Bridges
We owe the earliest examples of Great Lakes Native American art that can be clearly dated and attributed to specific peoples, to military officers, who fought in the eighteenth-century wars for political control of the region. In general, they were motivated by the fashion for collecting curiosities, but officers that engaged in diplomatic negotiations might also be presented with fine clothing through ritual adoption that made them members of Aboriginal families. This talk will discuss the major collections that have come down to us from the period in order to demonstrate the two different collecting paradigms and the contrasting experiences of Indigenous life that lie behind them.
Co-sponsored by Pitzer College, the Pomona College Museum of Art and the Pomona College Department of Art and Art History