Detail of Untitled.

Schedule & Venues

Hours & Admission

Admission

  • $10: General
  • $5: Student (valid ID)
  • $5: Senior (62 or older)
  • $5: New Mexico Resident
  • Free: Children (under 16), MoCNA Members, Native and Indigenous Peoples, and United States Military Veterans

Gallery Hours

Monday & Wednesday-Sat. 10am-5pm
Sunday 11am-4pm. Closed Tuesday.

Address

IAIA Museum of Contemporary Native Arts (MoCNA)
108 Cathedral Place, Santa Fe, NM 87501

About

Action/Abstraction Redefined is the first major traveling exhibition that analyzes modern Native American art from the mid-1940s through the 1970s that was inspired by Abstract Expressionism, Color Field, and Hard-edge painting and created by leading artists, including George Morrison (Chippewa), Fritz Scholder (Mission/ Luiseño), and T.C. Cannon (Caddo/Kiowa). These innovative artists explored new ways of artistic expression and challenged stereotypical expectations of American Indian art. Their paintings, sculptures, and works on paper were created at the Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA) in Santa Fe and in art studios across the nation.

IAIA’s revolutionary art approaches encouraged experimentation and risk taking: artists combined New York School art influences with Native art traditions. George Morrison actively contributed to the Abstract Expressionism movement in New York, where he exhibited and was associated with Franz Kline, Willem de Kooning, Jackson Pollock, and other avant-garde artists of the time. Like Abstract Expressionists, who broke with representational conventions and prioritized experimentation, IAIA artists redefined the concept of abstraction by creating deeply personal works informed by their own traditional aesthetics and art influences coming out of New York.

Their innovative works pushed the boundaries of Native art and contributed to the development of contemporary Native Art. Among the artists included in this exhibition are George Morrison (Chippewa); Lloyd Kiva New (Cherokee); T.C. Cannon (Caddo/Kiowa); Fritz Scholder (Mission/ Luiseño); Alfred Young Man (Cree); Linda Lomahaftewa (Hopi/Choctaw); John Hoover (Aleut); Edna Massey (Cherokee); Earl Eder (Yanktonai Sioux); Neil Parsons (Blackfeet); Kevin Red Star (Crow); Redstar Price (Crow); Peter Jones (Onondaga); George Burdeau (Blackfeet); Henry "Hank" Delano Gobin (Tulalip/Snohomish); Alice Loiselle (Chippewa); Patrick Swazo Hinds (Tesuque Pueblo); Carl Tubby (Choctaw); and others. Action/Abstraction Redefined was co-curated by MoCNA Chief Curator Dr. Manuela Well-Off-Man, MoCNA Curator of Collections Tatiana Lomahaftewa-Singer, and IAIA Associate Professor and Interim Research Center Director Dr. Lara Evans. The exhibition was on view at MoCNA from July 28, 2017 through July 7, 2019.

Action Abstraction Redefined Hardback Book.

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Take the Exhibit Home with You

This is the first exhibit catalog analyzing modern Native American art. Hard cover, 144 pages, full-color, published by the IAIA Museum of Contemporary Native Arts, 2018.