Art of Native America: The Charles and Valerie Diker Collection at The Met Fifth Avenue
ART OF NATIVE AMERICA
The Charles and Valerie Diker Collection
April 12, 2021 — Ongoing
The achievement of historical Native artists from across the United States and Canada is reflected in this installation of 116 works. More than fifty Indigenous groups are represented, as well as nearly all major historical Native American aesthetic forms: painting, drawing, sculpture, textiles, quill and bead embroidery, basketry, and ceramics. The works reveal the complexity, vibrancy, and variation of Native life and offer new narratives of America's past.
Most of the objects—made to be worn; to nourish; to hunt, defend, and protect; to heal; to cradle the young, and to invoke the spirits—were created in the eighteenth, nineteenth, and early twentieth centuries against the backdrop of Euro-American colonialism. They are organized into seven geographical regions: Woodlands, Plains, Plateau, California and Great Basin, Southwest, Northwest Coast, and the Arctic.
This long-term installation consists of promised gifts, donations, and loans from the pioneering collectors Charles and Valerie Diker. Their belief in the potential of these objects to broaden historical, cultural, and aesthetic understanding inspired their generosity. The presentation marks the first significant display of Native art in the American Wing, established in 1924.
The exhibition is made possible by The Peter Jay Sharp Foundation, the Diane W. and James E. Burke Fund, the Enterprise Holdings Endowment, and the Walton Family Foundation.
Click the image below to watch a video playlist detailing the Art of Native America: The Charles and Valerie Diker Collection exhibition.
