Indigenous Beauty: Masterworks of American Indian Art from the Diker Collection

Indigenous Beauty: Masterworks of American Indian Art from the Diker Collection celebrates the visionary creativity and technical mastery of Native North American arts and artists across many generations. The superlative works selected from the collection of Charles and Valerie Diker show innovative uses of materials; precision of workmanship; ingenious deployment of pattern, design, and abstraction; and expressiveness of form and representation—all traits that we continue to value in art today. Indigenous North America encompasses a remarkable range of cultural and historical diversity. The works in this exhibition span the entire continent, and are organized into eleven different sections, each reflecting an artistic tradition defined by geography, media, and common past; maps identify areas that have been occupied by specific cultural groups, and introductory texts describe features that have characterized these groups over time. Beyond the groupings highlighted here, these artists are identified as members of a great variety of tribes and nations, each a product of deep and intertwined Native histories. These rich backgrounds inform the objects; some are rooted in particular episodes in the ancient past, while others stem from more recent challenges and experiences. Together, these captivating objects and their individual stories convey the extraordinary breadth of Native American experience in North America.

Indigenous Beauty: Masterworks of American Indian Art from the Diker Collection is organized by the American Federation of Arts. The exhibition was made possible by the generosity of an anonymous donor, the JFM Foundation, and Mrs. Donald Cox. The exhibition in Atlanta has been made possible through generous support from the Thalia N. Carlos and Chris M. Carlos Foundation, Inc. and the Thalia and Michael C. Carlos Foundation, Inc.