Connoisseurship and Good Pie

Ted Coe and Collecting Native Art

Exhibition Website

Jul 25 2015 - May 11 2016

The exhibition explores the study of Native art through Coe’s career and collections. More than 200 works range from a 19th-century Haida Chilkat robe, a birchbark scale model of a cottage by Irene Desmoulin, a pair of 19th-century Cree snowshoes,  a rare mid-18th century Cree or Ojibwe moosehide coat, and examples of beadwork by virtuoso artist Joyce Growing Thunder Fogarty, including a stunning fully beaded horse mask.

Coe was a pioneer in the field of Native Art studies, curating landmark exhibitions, writing seminal books, and promoting Native art connoisseurship. Trained as an art historian specializing in European art, Coe ultimately found his life’s passion in collecting Native American Art and worked tirelessly to expand the public’s understanding and appreciation of traditional and contemporary forms, even as many connoisseurs, collectors, and even artists thought them to be lost. Coe was largely self-taught, through years of study and interactions with Native artists.

Credit: Exhibition overview from museum website

  • Indigenous
  • Americas

Exhibition Venues & Dates