Twilight: Trading Posts and Creative Legacies

In the decades after World War II, the number of trading posts among Navajo and Hopi Communities declined, many closing or converting to convenience stores. A fundamental shift to a cash economy, increased job opportunities, better education, paved roads, and pickup trucks, all brought a wider world to isolated communities. 

For artists, improved transportation opened more ways to interact directly with collectors, sell to urban markets, and brought collectors access to artists, without the trader intermediary. Just as twilight is gradual, so was the change. Change included honoring creative legacies, often of family, but moving on in exciting ways with new creative vision inspired by contemporary influences.

Twilight: Trading Posts and Creative Legacies primarily focuses on Navajo textiles, including the Heard Museum’s recent acquisition by Calvin Toney (Diné) and a pictorial textile depicting the exterior of a trading post by Florence Riggs (Diné). The exhibition also features other examples of art related to trading posts such as pottery, jewelry, and photography.

Credit: Exhibition overview from museum website