Stretching the Canvas Showcases Eight Decades of Native American Paintings

The National Museum of the American Indian’s new exhibition, Stretching the Canvas, is centered around one broad, thorny question: What is Native American art? Many tribes, each with unique aesthetics, are spread out across what is now known as America, meaning that gathering these wide-ranging paintings into one cohesive show is certainly a challenge—yet the new exhibition, which opened this week, does just that. Stretching the Canvas, now showing at the museum’s George Gustav Heye Center in New York, features pieces ranging over eight decades, including 30 different artists and 39 works overall.

“This show is notable for its broad historic scope and engagement with American art history,” said the museum’s lead curator, David Penney. The Native artists in the show, based in cities from New Mexico to New York, are bound here by a common theme: reclaiming and celebrating their culture throughout the various time periods.

https://www.vogue.com/article/stretching-the-canvas-eight-decades-of-native-painting-review