George Catlin
dal 5/3/2013 al 22/6/2013
Segnalato da
5/3/2013
George Catlin
National Portrait Gallery, London
American Indian Portraits. Catlin was an artist, writer and showman who documented Native American peoples and their cultures to serve as a record of what he believed to be a passing way of life. The exhibiton includes major loans from the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington.
curated by Stephanie Pratt and Joan Carpenter Troccoli
The National Portrait Gallery announces today (Thursday 22 November 2012) its spring 2013 exhibition of iconic American Indian portraits by the American artist George Catlin (1796-1872). George Catlin: American Indian Portraits will open on 7 March 2013 and will include major loans from the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington. Catlin was an artist, writer and showman who documented Native American peoples and their cultures to serve as a record of what he believed to be a passing way of life. What he created is regarded as one of the most important records of indigenous peoples ever made. Catlin was not the only artist to embark on such a project in the nineteenth century, but his record is the most extensive still in existence.
Catlin, who had little formal training, began his artistic career as a painter of portrait miniatures. In the 1830s he made five trips in the western part of the United States before the Native American peoples of those regions had been subsumed into the legal boundaries of the United States. He assembled the materials and work he produced, during and inspired by the five trips, into his ‘Indian Gallery’ which comprised some 500 portraits, pictures and indigenous artefacts. Catlin’s entrepreneurial spirit led him to tour the ‘Indian Gallery’ in the eastern states from 1837-39, but he failed in selling it to the United States government. He then went on to tour the gallery in Europe for the next ten years including exhibitions held in Great Britain, France and Belgium. The works will be displayed to evoke the sense of spectacle Catlin created during the time of his tour and by doing so will demonstrate how Catlin constructed a particular image of Native Americans in the minds of his audience.
George Catlin: American Indian Portraits is organised by the National Portrait Gallery, London, in collaboration with the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington. The exhibition is curated by Dr Stephanie Pratt, Associate Professor of Art History at the University of Plymouth who has published extensively on the representation of Native American peoples, and Dr Joan Carpenter Troccoli, Founding Director of the Petrie Institute of Western American Art at the Denver Art Museum, from which she retired in 2012. She is co-author of George Catlin and His Indian Gallery (2002).
Sandy Nairne, Director of the National Portrait Gallery, London, says: ‘George Catlin made powerful and sympathetic portraits of the American Indians at a time of traumatic historical change. They are wonderful images, and I am delighted that the Smithsonian American Art Museum is collaborating with the National Portrait Gallery to allow them to be seen in Britain again.’
Dr Stephanie Pratt, Associate Professor of Art History, University of Plymouth, says: ‘As a person of Native American descent, I am very conscious of the extent to which Catlin's record of Plains Indian peoples dominates their representation even today. Visitors to the exhibition will have the opportunity to consider Catlin's Indian Gallery and ask whether these striking images adequately address the historical reality of American Indian peoples at that time.’
Dr Joan Carpenter Troccoli, Founding Director of the Petrie Institute of Western American Art at the Denver Art Museum says: ‘George Catlin: American Indian Portraits is a rare opportunity to examine a complex cultural figure from multiple perspectives. Ultimately Catlin's reputation rests on his art, and it's a thrill to see so many of his greatest works together on public view. In the presence of these portraits, it's impossible not to think of Catlin's pledge to his Native American subjects - that “phoenix-like”, they would rise from the stain on a painter's palette, and live again upon canvas, and stand forth for centuries yet to come, the living monuments of a noble race.’
Elizabeth Glassman, President and CEO, Terra Foundation for American Art, says: ‘We are proud to support the return of George Catlin’s superb collection of paintings and artefacts to the United Kingdom for the first time since 1840, when his ‘Indian Gallery’ debuted at London’s Egyptian Hall. Catlin’s representations of Native American life excited European audiences then, and this exhibition, developed collaboratively by American and British curators, will surely inspire a robust cross-cultural dialogue that’s as important today as it was more than 150 years ago.’
Supported by the Terra Foundation for American Art
Spring Season 2013 sponsored by Herbert Smith Freehills
PUBLICATION
A fully illustrated catalogue will be published by the National Portrait Gallery to accompany the exhibition. The catalogue is written by the exhibition curators Dr Stephanie Pratt and Dr Joan Carpenter Troccoli and will be available to purchase at the National Portrait Gallery Bookshop.
EVENTS
A full programme of associated events and activities will complement the exhibition. A dedicated conference American Indian Images: Making and Breaking George Catlin’s legacy will be held at the National Portrait Gallery on Friday 8 March 2013. Confirmed speakers include the exhibition curators Dr Stephanie Pratt and Dr Joan Carpenter Troccoli. To book tickets for the conference and other events please go to www.npg.org.uk
TOUR
Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery: from 12 July until 13 October 2013
The Terra Foundation for American Art
The Terra Foundation for American Art is dedicated to fostering exploration, understanding, and enjoyment of the visual arts of the United States for national and international audiences. Recognizing the importance of experiencing original works of art, the foundation provides opportunities for interaction and study, beginning with the presentation and growth of its own art collection in Chicago. To further cross-cultural dialogue on American art, the foundation supports and collaborates on innovative exhibitions, research, and educational programs. Implicit in such activities is the belief that art has the potential both to distinguish cultures and to unite them.
Image: Medicine Man, Performing his Mysteries over a Dying Man Blackfoot/Siksika, by George Catlin, 1832. Copyright: Smithsonian American Art Museum
For further Press information, please contact: Simone Sagi, Press Manager, National Portrait Gallery: Tel. 020 7 321 6620 (not for publication) / Email ssagi@npg.org.uk
Members Afternoon Preview: 6 March 2013, 14:00-16:00
National Portrait Gallery
St Martin’s Place - London WC2H 0HE
Opening hours Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Saturday, Sunday: 10am – 6pm (Gallery closure commences at 5.50pm) Late Opening: Thursday, Friday: 10am – 9pm (Gallery closure commences at 8.50pm)
Admission free