Heard Museum
With the recent exciting news from Phoenix, Arizona, this month, we're featuring MTA member Heard Museum, a museum dedicated to the presentation, interpretation and advancement of American Indian art.
The museum's latest exhibition, "Hiding in Plain Sight", explores the influence of American Indian creative expression on the work of iconic artist Leon Polk Smith.
Smith was a celebrated modernist painter and leader of the Hard-edge painting movement, an art form of the late 1950's and 60's that emphasized geometric forms and bright colors.
Curated by Joe Baker (Delaware) and Diana Pardue, this is the largest exhibition of Smith's paintings in more than 25 years and features 37 works that span seven decades. The exhibition pairs Smith's paintings and works on paper with examples of historic and rare American Indian beadwork, ribbon applique and painted hides from his native Oklahoma. In the words of Leon Polk Smith, “I grew up in the Southwest, where the colors in nature were pure and rampant, and where my Indian neighbors and relatives used color to vibrate and shock.”
The museum's latest exhibition, "Hiding in Plain Sight", explores the influence of American Indian creative expression on the work of iconic artist Leon Polk Smith.
Smith was a celebrated modernist painter and leader of the Hard-edge painting movement, an art form of the late 1950's and 60's that emphasized geometric forms and bright colors.
Curated by Joe Baker (Delaware) and Diana Pardue, this is the largest exhibition of Smith's paintings in more than 25 years and features 37 works that span seven decades. The exhibition pairs Smith's paintings and works on paper with examples of historic and rare American Indian beadwork, ribbon applique and painted hides from his native Oklahoma. In the words of Leon Polk Smith, “I grew up in the Southwest, where the colors in nature were pure and rampant, and where my Indian neighbors and relatives used color to vibrate and shock.”