Canyon de Chelly

Label

Modernist photographer Laura Gilpin was drawn to the varied landscapes and rich history of the Southwest, particularly that of its Indigenous inhabitants. Here, the complex play of light and shadow exposes the stratigraphy of the canyon’s long and troubled history. For instance, in 1864 Colonel Christopher “Kit” Carson forcibly removed the Navajo from the Canyon de Chelly, their ancestral homeland. Four years later, the Treaty of Bosque Redondo returned the canyon to the newly formed Navajo Nation.

Just as Gilpin was drawn to the breathtaking landscapes of the West, so were many wealthy tourists. In fact, many Native artists and communities used the tourist economy to make a living and perpetuate existing cultural and artistic practices. Basket-weaver Elizabeth Hickox, who lived along the Salmon River in Northern California and sold her work to curio dealer Grace Nicholson, is an excellent example of how these colonial entanglements impacted creative expression.

To create this lidded basket, Hickox used a twining technique to incorporate staghorn lichen–dyed porcupine quills with tightly woven maidenhair fern. The deep purple-black of the fern, combined with the golden yellow porcupine quills, provides the perfect contrast to highlight the flint mark design cascading around the form.

From the 2022 exhibition This Land: American Engagement with the Natural World, curated by Jami C. Powell, Curator of Indigenous Art; Barbara J. MacAdam, former Jonathan L. Cohen Curator of American Art; Thomas H. Price, former Curatorial Assistant; Morgan E. Freeman, former DAMLI Native American Art Fellow; and Michael Hartman, Jonathan Little Cohen Associate Curator of American Art

Course History

ARTH 17, The Power of Place: Urban and Rural Images in American Art, 1900-1945, Sarah Powers, Winter 2014

ENGL 7.5, Writing Wild, Patricia McKee, Spring 2019

ANTH 7.05, Animals and Humans, Laura Ogden, Winter 2022

GEOG 31.01, Postcolonial Geographies, Erin Collins, Winter 2022

ANTH 50.05, Environmental Archaeology, Madeleine McLeester, Winter 2022

ANTH 50.05, Environmental Archaeology, Madeleine McLeester, Winter 2022

ARTH 5.01, Introduction to Contemporary Art, Mary Coffey and Chad Elias, Winter 2022

ANTH 3.01, Introduction to Cultural Anthropology, Chelsey Kivland, Summer 2022

ANTH 3.01, Introduction to Cultural Anthropology, Chelsey Kivland, Summer 2022

SPAN 65.15, Wonderstruck: Archives and the Production of Knowledge in an Unequal World, Silvia Spitta and Barbara Goebel, Summer 2022

Exhibition History

Looking Backward, Moving Forward: Women Photographers at the Hood Museum of Art, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, June 12-September 19, 2004.

Mining Photography: Selecting Work from the Permanent Collection, Harrington Gallery Teaching Exhibition, Studio Art 30 & 75, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, May 6-June 4, 2000.

This Land: American Engagement with the Natural World, Rush Family Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, April 12 - July 22, 2022.

Provenance

Possibly collected by Arthur Addison Fisher (1878-1965), Denver, Colorado; Gertrude and Herbert Calvin Fisher [Class of 1932, (1910-2006), Denver, Colorado; given to present collection, 1982.

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