Artistic Encounters with Indigenous America

Exhibition Website

Dec 3 2018 - May 13 2019

This exhibition explores how European and American artists represented Indigenous North Americans in drawings, prints, watercolors, photographs, and popular ephemera from the seventeenth to the early twentieth century. 

Through forty-five examples from The Met collection, the display will trace the evolution of this complex imagery over time, highlighting the ways in which it contributed to the creation and dissemination of myths and misconceptions about Native peoples, often justifying their dispossession, cultural destruction, and genocide. 

From formulaic depictions of so-called savage warriors and Indian princesses to romanticized representations of a "vanishing race," these works reveal the pervasive influence of Indigenous America on the Euro-American imagination.

Credit: Exhibition overview from museum website 

  • Various Media
  • American
  • Indigenous

Exhibition Venues & Dates