Media Contact
Raymond Mathews
Lowe Art Museum
[email protected]
305.284.5422
Finished in Beauty
Navajo Weaving from the Permanent Collection
January 24, 2014 – March 23, 2014
CORAL GABLES, FL (January 13, 2014) – Featuring 19 examples of Navajo
wearing blankets, Finished in Beauty: Navajo Weaving from the Permanent Collection
examines three categories of these beautiful, hand-woven works of art: the chief blanket,
women's garments, and the sarape, all drawn from the Lowe's Alfred I. Barton
Collection of Native American Art. A fourth module of the exhibition focuses on the
weaving process, from wool production to the weaver's final creation, and includes
examples of textile weaving implements and documentary photographs by Laura Gilpin
taken on the Navajo Reservation in the 1950s.
The Navajo, Athapaskan peoples closely related to the Apache as well as to tribes
in northern Canada, may have arrived in what is now the Four Corners area of the
southwestern United States by the fourteenth century. In the region, they encountered
the nearby Pueblo Indians and, by the mid-sixteenth century, the Spanish, who
undertook their first major push northward from Mexico with Francisco Vázquez de
Coronado's 1540 expedition in search of the reported Seven Cities of Gold. The Navajo
likely learned weaving techniques from the Pueblo Indians, who grew cotton and yucca
for the weaving of ceremonial garments, but with the arrival of the Spanish came
additional design influences, the importation of dyestuffs, and, most critically, the Churro
sheep, introduced into the region in 1598.
Banded chief blankets are some of the most well-known examples of Navajo
weaving. Categorized into three phases, or styles, the exhibition includes a rare
example of a first-phase, "Ute-style" chief blanket dating to 1840-1850, one of the
earliest in the museum's collection. Primarily collected by Plains Indians like the Ute
and Comanche, chief blankets, which developed more intricate patterns in the
progression of their phases, were important trade items for the Navajo. Women's twopiece dresses, called bííl, were typically two matched panels attached at the shoulders
and waist, and featured designs taken from basket weaving, as did their mantas or
shawls.
Pre-1860 classic period sarapes, a category that include both wearing blankets
and ponchos, featured more intricate design elements and color patterns, and were
woven from both handspun wool and wool that was "raveled" or re-spun from imported
trade cloth. Beginning in 1864, the Navajo people were confined by the United States
government at Bosque Redondo (Fort Sumner, New Mexico). Stripped of their
belongings, the Navajo were completely dependent on the U.S. Army for their survival.
During this devastating period of Navajo history, weavers were introduced to Spanish
American textiles from the Rio Grande area. New design elements, such as the Saltillo
star pattern, influenced their weaving once the Navajo were released to the newly
formed Navajo Reservation in 1868.
These influences led to a shift from classic period designs into a transitional period
(1865-1895), which included an increased use of commercially produced wool and
commercial dyes and lasted until the late nineteenth century. By the turn of the
twentieth century, the commercial availability of wearing blankets, such as the
Pendleton Blanket, led to a decrease in their hand weaving. At the same time, nonIndian traders, who operated a number of trading posts in and around the Navajo
reservation, influenced weaving production with an eye towards building a market for
hand-woven rugs, especially in eastern cities. Despite its decline in popularity, the
nineteenth-century hand-woven Navajo wearing blanket remains one of the most
enduring artistic legacies of the Navajo Nation.
A member’s preview on Friday, January 24, 2014 will feature a lecture by Bill
Mercer, curator of the concurrent exhibition Pueblo to Pueblo: The Legacy of Southwest
Indian Pottery, beginning at 7 p.m. at the Storer Auditorium, University of Miami School
of Business, with a reception following at 8 p.m. at the Lowe Art Museum. The lecture is
free for Lowe members and University of Miami students; the reception is free for Lowe
members and $10 for non-members. Also on view during the reception will be the
newly re-installed Alfred I. Barton Wing of Native American Art.
A Family Day will be held on Sunday, March 16, 2014 and will include a Native
American puppet performance for all ages, entitled "Tales of Light", from 1 p.m. - 2
p.m. at the Storer Auditorium, University of Miami School of Business. Master storyteller
and puppeteer, Hobey Ford, shines the spotlight on three Native American tales
teaching about light and life. The native people told numerous stories about fire and the
sun to teach not only about light and warmth but to shine a light on many life lessons.
"Little Grandmother Spider Woman" is a Cherokee animal tale from North Carolina
about the danger of fire. The story is also about false pride and boastfulness, or in other
words, bragging. Through the story, we also learn about an important craft of the
Cherokees: pottery. "Raven steals the sun" is a Haida tale telling of Raven the
Trickster's antics in stealing back the sun from a selfish chief who keeps the sun in a
box for himself. In "The Gift of Fire", gifts were given to all creatures except man, so
hummingbird flies to the sun to bring back a gift for man. Man discovers the uses and
dangers of fire in this cautionary tale.
Support for the exhibition at the Lowe Art Museum is provided in part through a
grant from The Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs and the Cultural
Affairs Council, and the Miami-Dade Mayor and Board of County Commissioners.
The Lowe Art Museum is located on the campus of the University of Miami at 1301
Stanford Drive, Coral Gables. Museum gallery and store hours are Tuesday-Saturday 10 a.m. –
4 p.m. and Sunday noon – 4 p.m. The Museum is closed Mondays and University holidays.
General Admission (not including programs) is $10, senior citizens and non-UM students are
$5, and free for Lowe members, UM students, faculty and staff, and children under 12.
Admission is free on Donation Day, the first Tuesday of every month. Public Program Admission
is $10 for non-members and free for Lowe members. For more information, call 305.284.3535,
tweet us @loweartmuseum, follow us on facebook.com/loweartmuseum or visit
lowemuseum.org.
IMAGES AVAILABLE ON REQUEST
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