Dallas Museum of Art Uncrated

Archive Page 13

LGBTQ+ Equity in the Arts

On November 29 we are partnering with KERA’s Art & Seek for a night of performances and conversation with local arts leaders Erica Fellicella, Olivia Grace Murphy, and Jerome Larez (see their full bios here). The topic: how equitable and inclusive is the Dallas arts landscape for LGBTQ+ communities?

The night will kick off with each panelist sharing a selection of past work and then Art & Seek‘s Senior Arts Reporter-Producer Jerome Weeks will moderate a conversation. After the program, stick around for a meet and greet with the panelists to keep the conversation going.

I reached out to each panelist with a few questions about their lives, work, and what we can expect on November 29. Here’s what they had to say:

Erica Felicella, artist, consultant, organizer

If you could take one work of art from the DMA home what would it be?

Cindy Sherman, Untitled, 1981, Chromogenic color print, Dallas Museum of Art, General Acquisitions Fund, 1982.21, © Cindy Sherman, courtesy of Metro Pictures, New York

Any advice for young artists out there?
It may be hard but don’t let that stop you.

What is something you are looking forward to?
The advancement of and changes in the art scene in the Dallas community.

You’ve lived in Dallas for about 20 years—how has the city changed in your perspective?
Growth across the board.

What are some words that you live by?
If you are not scared then you are not doing it right.

What is the last thing you Googled?
Performance art.

Is there a medium that you are interested in trying?
A bigger dive into New Media-based works with stronger technology components.

How do you recommend getting started with advocacy work?
Show up, listen, and go.

What is your hope for the LGBTQ+ communities of Dallas?
More opportunity given to shine and growth as a community.

Can you give us a sneak peek of what you will present at State of the Arts?
Think a community speaking through the voice of one.

Olivia Grace Murphy, Flexible Grey Theatre Company

If you could take one work of art from the DMA home what would it be?

Dorothea Margaret Tanning, Jeux d’Enfants, 1942, lent by private collection

What is something you have to do before each show?
As an artist, I put a lot of importance on collaboration. I have to talk to and check in with every actor I share the stage with that night, whether it’s one other person or 100 other people.

What is something you are looking forward to?
Artistically, I am looking forward to announcing our next season for Flexible Grey Theatre Company. Personally, I am looking forward to the holidays because I make (in my humble opinion) the absolute greatest pumpkin pie.

Last play you read?
CHURCH by Young Jean Lee

What do you find most challenging or rewarding about theater as an artistic medium?
The most rewarding part is getting together with a group of fellow artists who you adore and trust completely to create something wonderful. I just recently had a profound experience working on STRAIGHT at Uptown Players. The people involved and the environment were so filled with trust and love. It was an unforgettable experience as an artist.

What are some words that you live by?
“To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all.” –Oscar Wilde

What is the last thing you Googled?
“Cute snake pictures.”

How do you recommend getting started with advocacy work?
Find something you’re passionate about. Find work that needs to be done that speaks to you. And then don’t lose that spark.

What is your hope for the LGBTQ+ communities of Dallas?
I want to continue to normalize queer culture, queer art, queer people, and make our community part of the fabric of why Dallas is so great. Acceptance and visibility are key, and I feel like we’re making great strides.

Can you give us a sneak peek of what you will present at State of the Arts?
One of my passion projects with Flexible Grey Theatre Company has been the continued work on our original piece, BRIDGES: LGBTQ+ THEN & NOW, in which interviews from the older LGBTQ+ generation are told by queer millennial performers. The audience on November 29 will have a sneak peek of this show performed by some of my favorite actors in DFW.

Jerome Larez, Co-Founder and Board Chair, Arttitude

If you could take one work of art from the DMA home what would it be?

Terry Falke, Remnant of the Original Route 66, Arizona, 1995, Fujiflex print, Dallas Museum of Art, gift of The Afterimage Gallery, 1997.137, © Terry Falke

What drives new projects for you?
I hope to bring people together to share a profound experience and instill pride, belonging, interaction, and human connection.

What do you love most about teaching?
I love interacting with the students and watching them develop their art-making process.

What is something you are looking forward to?
I look forward to meeting new artists and listening to their artistic processes. I especially look forward to knowing their personal stories and why they make art.

What are some words that you live by?
Do the difficult things while they are easy and do the great things while they are small. A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step.

What is the last thing you Googled?
The Raising of Lazarus by Duccio

How do you recommend getting started with advocacy work?
Find a cause whose mission aligns with your beliefs and join. The biggest hurdle is getting involved.

What is your hope for the LGBTQ+ communities of Dallas?
My hope for the LGBTQIA community of Dallas is to build greater solidarity in our voices. Too many of us are fighting the battle for equality with little support. I want to see organizations and individuals of multiple backgrounds working together.

What, if anything, is missing from the arts in Dallas?
For the most part, diversity, access, and inclusivity are missing. Dallas has many creative people and art should not be an afterthought because it is who we are. Art has an extraordinary power to transform attitudes, behaviors, and perceptions, especially when art is in places that are accessible to everyone.

Can you give us a sneak peek of what you will present at State of the Arts?
We will have a Day of the Dead fashion show with artwork that we presented in past shows from our MariconX program.

Jessie Carillo is Manager of Adult Programs at the DMA.

Some Assembly Required

Published November 16, 2018 Behind-the-Scenes , Conservation , Dallas , Decorative Art and Design , Exhibitions , Installation , works of art 2 Comments
Tags: Contemporary Art, Dallas Museum of Art, Design, DMA

Have you ever wandered through the galleries at the DMA and thought to yourself, “Hmm, I wonder how they got this huge sculpture up those steps?” or “Wow! I bet it was really hard to hang that giant painting!” If you have, this post is for you! In one of the DMA’s newest installations, Women + Design: New Works, there are several pieces that required significant effort on the part of the DMA’s Collections team to install. Check out these behind-the-scenes photos and fun facts from the installation process, and visit the Museum to see these works in person—and for FREE—now through Sunday, February 17, 2019, in the Mary Noel and Bill Lamont Gallery.

Iris 3 Objects Conservator Fran Baas adjusts the laser-cut polyester lace on Iris van Herpen’s Voltage Dress.

Najla 1 A team of preparators works on lowering the two pieces of Najla El Zein’s Seduction onto the platform. Each piece of the sculpture weighs approximately 1,500 pounds and needs to be moved with a gantry crane. The lower stone was placed first, and then the upper stone had to be carefully lowered onto it.

Mobile 1 Fran Baas, Lance Lander, and Mike Hill review the instructions for assembling Faye Toogood’s Tools for Life Mobile 2. Because the components of the mobile are heavy, the team had to know exactly what to do to minimize unnecessary handling.

Mike Hill and John Lendvay work to assemble Tools for Life Mobile 2 as it hangs from the ceiling.

Doug Doug Velek takes measurements for the two pieces of jewelry by Katie Collins. Prior to installing the work, the preparators made the wedges and lifts used to display the jewelry in the exhibition. After confirming that the necklaces were centered on the wedge, preparators used pins to secure them in place.

SS and RS Curator Sarah Schleuning and preparator Russell Sublette discuss the placement of the three stools by Faye Toogood.

Katie Province is an Assistant Registrar for Collections and Exhibitions at the DMA.

Deck the Halls, DMA-Style

Published November 14, 2018 Creativity , DMA Store Closed
Tags: Dallas Museum of Art, DMA, Holiday, Holidays

With Thanksgiving around the corner and December on its way, ‘tis almost the season for lit fireplaces, overeating, your neighbors one-upping each other’s outdoor decor, inescapable repetitions of Jingle Bells, a family squabble or two, and, of course, shopping for gifts. If the holidays often leave you in a holi-daze when it comes to figuring out the perfect gift for each of your loved ones, fret no more. Our 2018 Holiday Gift Guide is here to help you cover your bases with creative gifts for him, her, the home, your petite Picassos, and more, so that you can avoid those last-minute mad dashes to the mall. Shop the full guide on our site, visit our store for more, and in the meantime, check out these highlighted items worth caroling about:

For Her
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Gold Texas Necklace, $45
Flaunt your Texas pride with this gold-plated necklace custom-made for the DMA, with cubic zirconia representing the major metropolitan regions of the state.

For Him
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Where to Drink Beer, $29.95
Discover the the little-known, eclectic, and surprising destinations for drinking beer in this ultimate guide created by some of the world’s most revered brewers.

For Kids
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The Giant Game of Sculpture, $29.95
Whether you’re a kid or a kid at heart, use your imagination and create your own unique sculptures with colorful cards, wrapping paper, and more in this interactive book.

For the Gamer
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Brain Freeze Quiz, $12
Put your friends and family to the test with this brain-busting (and beautifully patterned) word guessing game suitable for all ages.

For the Home

Rocket Cocktail Shaker, $40
Take inspiration from the barware on view in Cult of the Machine and become a stellar party host with this sleek and space-worthy cocktail shaker ready for liftoff.

Hayley Caldwell is the Copy and Content Marketing Writer at the DMA.

It’s in the Family: The Impact of a Handmade Dress

Published November 9, 2018 Behind-the-Scenes , Center for Creative Connections , Creativity Closed
Tags: Dallas Museum of Art, DMA

Working in an exciting place like the Center for Creative Connections (C3), I get to have conversations with visitors about how works of art can conjure specific memories that we pack away in our brains. So in May, when C3 had the idea for an open call for DMA staff to submit their own personal objects and accessories to be on view in the gallery, it felt like discovering buried treasures. What began as an employee’s small, digitally submitted story evolved into a captivating display of objects on view, many with rich family histories.

Jessica Kyle, who has worked at the DMA as the Donor Communications & Operations Specialist since January 2018, submitted several childhood dresses handmade by her grandmother Betty Jo Kyle in 1994. Jessica’s family flew her grandmother in from California a few weeks ago and I was lucky enough to chat with them about the dress and the lasting influence it has had on Jessica throughout her life.

Betty Jo Kyle and granddaughter Jessica Kyle

Betty Jo, by practice, is a cross-stitcher. The oldest of eight siblings, she refined her sewing practice by creating doll clothes from scrap fabrics—a skill she learned from her mother, although she admits she didn’t reach her level of skill. “Even in high school, we had sewing, but it was all basics,” she recalls. “So, by me sewing, the teacher would say, ‘Well, you just do what you want to do.’ She didn’t teach me anything else. I could have learned more if she had. She mostly just taught the kids who couldn’t get a stitch or hem in.”

Initially, Betty Jo’s grandchildren were all boys, so it didn’t lend much for clothing creation, particularly dresses. It wasn’t until Jessica was born that she had the desire to make dresses she would see in magazines. She even often made matching dresses for Jessica’s Barbie dolls. “I remember receiving the clothes that my grandma would make, and I would be so excited. I would be like, ‘Ooh, I have custom-made clothes in my closet!’ Even as a four year old, I can remember that.” Jessica says with a smile. “It’s funny, when you’re younger, you don’t realize how meaningful and important these types of things are to the family legacy. When you become an adult you really appreciate all these creations.”

These days, with her grandchildren grown up, Betty Jo focuses more on cross-stitching than dressmaking, but she still hangs on to her now-vintage sewing machine of decades past—an artwork in itself, as Jessica puts it. For Jessica, the summers she spent learning to cross-stitch with her grandmother in Compton, California, were transformative in how she sees herself as an artist and painter today. “It showed me that if you put the time in, and care for all those little details, you create a true work of art. It taught me to appreciate the whole process.”

See Jessica’s childhood dress and learn about other personal objects and accessories from DMA staff and the Museum’s collection on view until December 10 in the front gallery of the Center for Creative Connections.

Kerry Butcher is the Center for Creative Connections Education Coordinator at the DMA.

Time Travel at the DMA

Published November 5, 2018 American Art , European Art , Just for Fun , Second Thursdays with a Twist Closed
Tags: Dallas Museum of Art, DMA

This week we had a special visitor who traversed through time and space in advance of our November 8 Second Thursdays with a Twist all about Doctor Who. For his tour through the Museum, he said he would like to see some people and places that he’s traveled through time to visit. We were happy to oblige, mostly because we didn’t want him to use his sonic screwdriver on us. As he was walking through the Museum, he also found a few artworks featuring people and places he had not encountered and he wanted to learn more about those too.

The Doctor hadn’t yet met George Washington, so he was eager to see his portrait:

No trip to the DMA is complete without a stop at Frederic Edwin Church’s The Icebergs:

A future iteration of the Doctor met Vincent van Gogh, so naturally we had to show him Sheaves of Wheat:

And here are a few of the other stops he made in our galleries:

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When you visit the DMA on November 8 for our next Second Thursdays with a Twist, you, too, can go back in time to see Winston Churchill, the Aztecs, and many other important historical characters through our scavenger hunt and warp drive tours that’ll have you exploring all that timey wimey stuff!

Katie Cooke is the Manager of Adult Programs at the DMA.

Confectionery Connections

Published October 31, 2018 Just for Fun , works of art Closed
Tags: Dallas Museum of Art, DMA, Halloween

Ghosts, jack-o-lanterns, spider webs—these are some of the things that come to mind when thinking about Halloween. But the most important of all might be candy! I love how there is no shame in eating as much candy as I like this time of year. I must admit, sweet treats are on my mind a lot—so much so, that I couldn’t help but make some sugary connections with our collection.

Candy dish, Louis Comfort Tiffany (maker), date unknown, iridescent glass, Dallas Museum of Art, gift of Mr. and Mrs. Nelson Waggener, 1983.18

If the title of this piece is not enough to spark your imagination, maybe the gorgeous color of Tiffany’s candy dish will. Tiffany may be best known for his stained glass windows, but his creative versatility was also renowned. Lamps, vessels, jewelry—you name it, he could do it. The iridescent glass on this dish reminds me of old-fashioned pulled taffy, delicately thinned out into a flower-like shape, or an unraveled, satiny candy wrapper inviting us to share its saccharine delights.

Dale Chihuly, Hart Window, 1995, glass, Dallas Museum of Art, gift of Linda and Mitch Hart, 1995.21.a-ii, © Dale Chihuly

Speaking of glass, Dale Chihuly’s blown glass sculpture is an iconic installation commissioned for the Hamon Atrium. One of my fellow interns shared a story of a little girl who disagreed that Chihuly’s piece was made of glass. She asked the young girl what she thought it was, to which the girl answered, “plastic.” I was hoping she was going to say candy, because that’s what I think of every time I pass by. The vibrancy of the colors and the seemingly soft forms make me think of fruit roll-ups.

Pendant: macaw head profile, Mexico or Guatemala, Maya, 600–900 CE, Dallas Museum of Art, given in memory of Jerry L. Abramson by his estate, 2008.76

This Maya pendant of a macaw head profile has me dreaming of a flavorful lozenge. When viewed in person, this jadeite pendant pops out from the gallery’s gray walls, almost as if glowing. It’s no wonder that the Mayans valued jadeite and other greenstones as some of their most precious materials, just like diamonds are to us.

Wassily Kandinsky, Murnau, Burggrabenstrasse 1, 1908, 1908, oil on cardboard, Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas Art Association Purchase, 1963.31

Wassily Kandinsky had a neurological condition called synesthesia, a rare phenomenon in which one sense simultaneously triggers another sense. In Kandinsky’s case, he saw colors when he heard music. I like to think that I taste things when I look at art, but that’s not really true. This landscape painting reminds me of Munchkinland from The Wizard of Oz. Can you imagine the sidewalks lined with gumdrops and lollipops?

I blame candy makers for conditioning my brain to associate bright colors with candy, but I hope my connections have emphasized the enchanting qualities of these works of art. Art truly transcends visual response and transforms into palpable sensations, or at least that’s what I tell myself to feel better about my sweet tooth. I encourage you to explore which pieces from the DMA’s collection speak to you.

Paulina Martín is the McDermott Intern for Gallery & Community Teaching at the DMA.

Get to Know C3 Visiting Artist Lauren Cross

Published October 26, 2018 Center for Creative Connections , Community Connection , Creativity , Dallas , DFW 1 Comment
Tags: art making, Artist, Dallas Museum of Art, DMA

The Center for Creative Connections (C3) is thrilled to host Lauren Cross as our final artist in the 2018 Visiting Artist Project. Through her practice, Cross brings her passion and knowledge for engaging communities across the DFW Metroplex to the DMA. Her project created for C3 is no different: Assembly invites visitors to independently contribute drawings of useful and meaningful objects in their lives on 4 x 4-inch cardboard squares. Every few weeks, a selection of drawings will be installed with the goal of creating a collaborative quilt. Read this interview with the artist to learn more about her project—and stop by C3 to contribute your own drawing for the quilt!

Lauren Portrait

Tell us about yourself.
I am an artist, curator, and scholar; I am a wife, and also a mother to a beautiful, vibrant 15 month old. I was born and raised in Houston, Texas, and also spent a lot of time in both North Texas and East Texas as a child, visiting my uncles, aunts, cousins, and grandparents. Like many artists, I find that my work is both visually and contextually autobiographical.

Growing up within African American families with a strong impulse for oral history and cultural tradition had an important impact on my thinking as an artist. As a result, my pull within art history and cultural discourses has often looked intently at narratives that vividly describe my personal history and influences. I am the descendant of African American quilters, carpenters, builders, creatives, and culture bearers whose legacies are often reclaimed in my work.

Tell us a little about past projects that led you to apply to the C3 Visiting Artist Project.
I have always been a teaching artist who has engaged community within my work. One of my first projects after graduating was to design an arts curriculum for a local church in Dallas. Most recently, I helped develop community art projects for my nonprofit organization, WoCA Projects. This involved a partnership with ACT United, which created a photography education and exhibition project called My Fort Worth and a commission from the City of Fort Worth that collected over 2,000 visitor responses across the city about public art.

In applying for the C3 Visiting Artist Project, I saw an opportunity to connect my interest in community with my interdisciplinary studio practice using brown paper bags, digital imaging, and installation. With that, I thought of my Everyday Use installation projects, which I felt connected well with the DMA’s permanent collection. I felt that those works in particular gave me an aesthetic and material language that would allow me to create a project that could speak to DMA visitors.

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Tell us about the installation you’ve created in the Center for Creative Connections.
The installation I created, called Assembly, is a project that allows me to speak to my practice, which has often referenced the cultural narratives surrounding both brown paper bags and quilts and their relationship to African American culture. I thought a lot about C3’s emphasis on objects as they relate to identity as inspiration. It seemed like a great opportunity for me to address the objects that I use and reference in my work and the narratives about identity that are connected to them: skin color, hierarchy, cultural heritage, and history. I was happy to have the opportunity to probe visitors to think about everyday objects that mean something to them in hopes that there could be wider conversations about the things that have meaning in our lives.

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Do you have any favorite visitor contributions you’d like to share?

visitor contributions

What have you enjoyed most about this experience so far?

I have enjoyed seeing the sheer volume of thoughtful responses from visitors to the project. It has been empowering to pose a question and to get such great feedback. As an educator, it’s like teaching a subject that your students get excited about. I have also enjoyed having the opportunity to work with various museum educators throughout the project to find ways to connect visitors to the wider themes we are dealing with.

What upcoming projects are you working on or excited about?

I have an exciting exhibition coming up at the Cliff Gallery at Mountain View College (DCCD) from November 19 to December 14. This includes a Kitchen Table Talk with African American women artists and creatives in North Texas on Thursday, November 29, from noon to 2:00 p.m. and an artist reception on Friday, December 7, from 6:00 to 9:00 p.m. I will also have an exhibition at the Carillon Gallery at Tarrant County College South Campus in March 2019 as a result of my artist residency there this fall.

Join C3 Visiting Artist Lauren Cross for a Gallery Talk on Wednesday, December 19, from 12:15 to 1:00 p.m. Gallery talks are included in free admission.

Kerry Butcher is the Center for Creative Connections Education Coordinator at the DMA.

Make & Take: Architectural Artistry

Published October 17, 2018 Artist Encounters , Arts District , Creativity , Just for Fun , Make & Take Closed
Tags: architecture, art making, Dallas Museum of Art, DMA

We have a new way to get creative at the DMA! Make & Take is a new art-making series that takes place on one Thursday every month. Drop by on October 25 and stay for as long as you want, whether it’s a few minutes or an hour, and you’ll leave with a new skill plus your own creation. Our first Make & Take was on Thursday, September 27. As the weather cooled down, participants enjoyed their time outside on our Sculpture Terrace near the Conservation Gallery, overlooking part of the downtown skyline. Local artist and architecture teacher Jay Cantrell led participants in exercises that helped give shape to the cluster of buildings in front of them. One exercise involved outlining the skyline that showed the different structures using only one line. Another was focusing on architectural details of the buildings, like windows and arches, so you don’t get overwhelmed by tackling the entire building. You can see a few examples below.

View from Sculpture Terrace

Architectural drawing made by Jay Cantrell

Outline of skyline done by participant

Small detail of building done by participant

If you didn’t get a chance to come out and sketch with us, don’t worry! Make & Take will happen once a month (except December) and explore a new art technique every time. On the 25th, we’ll be working with vibrant pastels to make abstract images inspired by the pastels on view in Günther Förg: A Fragile Beauty. On November 29, explore monotype printmaking, where you’ll make subtractive images in ink and then print using a press, like the monotypes featured in Ida O’Keeffe: Escaping Georgia’s Shadow.

Katie Cooke is Manager of Adult Programs at the DMA.

School of Art

Published October 15, 2018 Arts District , College Night , Dallas , Education Closed
Tags: Dallas Museum of Art, DMA, student visits, students

Next week the DMA will host its first College Night! We are excited to open our doors on Wednesday, October 24, for this exclusive evening just for college students.

Since students will be taking a break from their busy fall semesters to join us (and hopefully all the midterms are over), we wanted this night to be a mix of fun and informative activities.

We’ll serve complimentary snacks and drinks, and there will be art activities, music spun by DJ Derek Lynn, and a chance to talk with DMA staff to learn more about various museum careers. Students can also see our new exhibition Cult of the Machine: Precisionism and American Art for free, and they can grab a sweet treat while learning more about our McDermott Internship Program.

For this night only, in honor of all those hours spent toiling away in their classes, we created a new self-guide called In a Class of Your Own, highlighting 14 school subjects and one work of art that best illustrates it. Here are a few that will be featured:

Archaeology

Idol, folded-arm form, Greece, Cycladic, c. 2700–2100 BCE, marble, Dallas Museum of Art, Foundation for the Arts Collection, The Mr. and Mrs. Stanley Marcus Collection of Fertility Figures, 1982.292.FA

Environmental Science

Frederic Edwin Church, The Icebergs, 1861, oil on canvas, Dallas Museum of Art, gift of Norma and Lamar Hunt, 1979.28

US History

William Tylee Ranney, Veterans of 1776 Returning from the War, 1848, oil on canvas, Dallas Museum of Art, The Art Museum League Fund, Special Contributors and General Acquisitions Fund, 1981.40

Music

Drum, Côte d’Ivoire, Senufo peoples, 20th century, wood and hide, Dallas Museum of Art, Foundation for the Arts Collection, gift of Mr. and Mrs. Stanley Marcus, 1981.139.FA

Interior Design

“Marshmallow” sofa, George Nelson Associates (designer), Irving Harper (designer), Herman Miller, Inc. (manufacturer), designed c. 1954–55, steel, aluminum, paint, foam, and wool, Dallas Museum of Art, 20th-Century Design Fund, 1995.41

Women’s Studies

Altar depicting the first female ancestor (luli), Indonesia, Southeast Moluccas, 19th century, wood and shell, Dallas Museum of Art, The Eugene and Margaret McDermott Art Fund, Inc., 1999.181.McD

Stacey Lizotte is the DMA League Director of Adult Programs at the DMA.

Hopi Histories, Possible Futures

Published October 8, 2018 Exhibitions , Installation Closed
Tags: mural

Today marks Indigenous Peoples’ Day, which recognizes the cultural contributions and importance of indigenous groups in the United States. In recognition of the holiday, we’re spotlighting the complex yet ultimately hopeful mural Hopi Visions: Journey of the Human Spirit, on view for free until December 2. The mural reflects the long collaboration between Hopi artists Michael Kabotie and Delbridge Honanie, who created the work in 2001 for the Museum of Northern Arizona. The exhibition also highlights a number of ancestral and modern works in the DMA’s permanent collection that connect to themes and material culture depicted in the murals.

Michael Kabotie and Delbridge Honanie, Journey of the Human Spirit–The Emergence (Panel A), 2001, courtesy of the Museum of Northern Arizona, photograph by Gene Balzer

This six-paneled mural weaves a story of Hopi society from its emergence to the beginning of the 21st century. The large painting creates an immediate sense of warmth and light through its luminous colors and the combination of simplified geometric forms with soft, painterly textures. However, the harmony of the composition is at odds with some of its content: Panel B depicts the violence of the 1680 Pueblo Revolt, when Pueblo groups fought back against the Spanish colonists who had settled in the Southwest.

Michael Kabotie and Delbridge Honanie, Journey of the Human Spirit–Pueblo Revolt: The Rebellion of 1680 (Panel B)

As the mural’s journey moves through time, it also alludes to the destructive extraction of uranium and coal from Hopi lands,as well as present-day problems such as alcoholism, illness, food deserts, drug use, and suicide.

Michael Kabotie and Delbridge Honanie, Journey of the Human Spirit–Rational Side: The Dysfunction (Panel E)

The coexistence of both destruction and regeneration in the mural reflects the Hopi principles that ground the artists’ work. Kobatie and Honanie explain that for Hopi, cycles of destruction and rebirth reflect an effort to find balance. For example, as the mural shows, although the Pueblo Revolt brought great violence, it ultimately forced the Spanish to retreat. Because of this violence, there was a regeneration of Hopi culture, which early Spanish settlers had severely repressed. The central panel powerfully symbolizes this through an image of the Squash Maiden, a new baby growing from an ear of corn, and the combination of ancestral images along the mural’s lower register with contemporary Hopi baskets, jewelry, and ceramics in the upper portion of the image.

Michael Kabotie and Delbridge Honanie, Journey of the Human Spirit–Middle Place: The Rebirth (Panel C)

The notion of contradiction as a place from which to grow and to find balance also informs Honanie and Kabotie’s understanding of their mission as Hopi artists. Their artistic practice was communal and rooted in Hopi culture, but it was also a reflection of individual goals and journeys. Kabotie and Honanie attempted to create a new visual language that incorporated Hopi imagery but also drew from Cubism, Abstract Expressionism, and US mass culture.

Michael Kabotie and Delbridge Honanie, Journey of the Human Spirit–Hope: Confusion and Hope (Panel F)

By placing a computer at the top of a Teotihuacan-style talud-tablero (slope and panel) pyramid, the artists look to contemporary technology and its potential for interconnectivity as a way to share wisdom from many cultures and traditions and create a balanced future, but they also root this technology and wisdom firmly in a collective indigenous history of the Americas.

Chloë Courtney is a Digital Collections Content Coordinator at the DMA.

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Dallas Museum of Art Uncrated

Archive Page 13

LGBTQ+ Equity in the Arts

Some Assembly Required

Deck the Halls, DMA-Style

It’s in the Family: The Impact of a Handmade Dress

Time Travel at the DMA

Confectionery Connections

Get to Know C3 Visiting Artist Lauren Cross

Make & Take: Architectural Artistry

School of Art

Hopi Histories, Possible Futures

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