A new installation at the de Young
Native Artists of Western North America
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FIG. 1 (left): Mask.
Cup’ik artist, Nunivak
Island, Alaska, United
States. C. 1880–1910.
Wood, cormorant feathers, sinew,
pigment, fur. H: 40.6 cm.
Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco,
bequest of Thomas G. Fowler, inv.
2007.21.138.
Image courtesy of the Fine Arts
Museums of San Francisco.
FIG. 2 (below left):
Dextra Nampeyo
Quotskuyva (American,
Hopi, b. 1928), jar, c. 1985.
Earthenware, pigment. D: 21.6 cm.
Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco,
gift of Paul E. and Barbara H. Weiss,
inv. 2007.75.13.
Image courtesy of the Fine Arts
Museums of San Francisco.
In August 2017, the largest gallery
in the de Young museum’s suite dedicated to
the arts of the Americas was transformed with
a new ongoing installation, Native Artists of
Western North America: In Dialogue with the
Natural World. The installation showcases the
Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco’s permanent
collection and allows visitors to experience
an artistic tour of the indigenous West, from the
American Southwest to the Arctic Circle.
The Fine Arts Museums’ Native American art
collection dates back to its earliest days. The
museums’ charter collections were drawn from
the California Midwinter International Exposition,
held in Golden Gate Park in 1894. Michael
H. de Young, owner and editor of the San Francisco
Chronicle, had initiated the exposition
ART on view
By Hillary Olcott