MUSEUM NEWS
32
THE MET
NEW YORK—This autumn, two exhibitions of traditional
arts from opposite sides of the world will open
at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The fi rst is Art of
Native America: The Charles and Valerie Diker Collection,
a landmark exhibition that will be installed
in the museum’s American Wing showcasing 116
masterworks representing the achievements of artists
from more than fi fty cultures across North America.
Ranging in date from the second to the early twentieth
centuries, the diverse works are promised gifts,
donations, and loans to the Met from the pioneering
collectors Charles and Valerie Diker. Long considered
to be the most signifi cant holdings of historical Native
American art in private hands, the Diker Collection has
particular strengths in sculpture from British Columbia
and Alaska, California baskets, pottery from Southwest
pueblos, Plains drawings and regalia, and rare
accessories from the eastern Woodlands. It will be on
view from October 4, 2018, until October 6, 2019,
and is accompanied by a fully illustrated catalog.
In the AOA galleries, Atea: Nature and Divinity
in Polynesia will open November 19, 2018. Atea
is a Polynesian cosmological term that refers to the
moment when it was believed that light fi rst sparked
forth, resulting in the birth of the fi rst generation of
gods. This exhibition will celebrate the creative ingenuity
of Polynesian artists who drew from the natural
world to give material expression to their understanding
of the divine. Featuring objects from American
collections and the Met’s own holdings, the exhibition
will showcase some thirty artworks—fi gural sculpture,
painted barkcloth, rare featherwork, and more—dating
from the late eighteenth to the nineteenth centuries.
The presentation will provide an opportunity to
understand a core principle of Pacifi c art: The divine
is not abstract but very much alive in nature. It will be
the subject of a Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin.
ABOVE: Dance mask.
Yup’ik, Alaska. C. 1916–18.
Wood, pigment, vegetal fi ber.
H: 52.1 cm.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New
York, the Charles and Valerie Diker
Collection of Native American Art,
promised gift of Charles and Valerie
Diker.
RIGHT: Shoulder bag
(strap missing). Possibly
Mississauga Ojibwe,
Anishinaabe, Ontario,
Michigan, or Wisconsin.
C. 1800.
Native-tanned leather, porcupine quills,
dye, glass beads, silk ribbon, metal
cones, deer hair. H: 30.5 cm.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New
York, the Charles and Valerie Diker
Collection of Native American Art,
promised gift of Charles and Valerie
Diker.
RIGHT: Fly whisk, tahiri.
Austral Islands, French
Polynesia. Early to mid 19th
century.
Wood, fi ber, human hair. L: 81.3 cm.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art,
New York, the Michael C. Rockefeller
Memorial Collection, bequest of
Nelson A. Rockefeller, 1979, inv.
1979.206.1487.
FAR LEFT: Pendant. Hawai’i.
18th–19th century.
Whalebone. H: 6 cm.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art,
New York, the Michael C. Rockefeller
Memorial Collection, bequest of
Nelson A. Rockefeller, 1979,
inv. 1979.206.1587.
LEFT: Female fi gure.
Ha’apai Islands, Tonga.
Early 19th century.
Whale ivory. H: 13.3 cm.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art,
New York, the Michael C. Rockefeller
Memorial Collection, bequest of
Nelson A. Rockefeller, 1979,
inv. 1979.206.1470.