POUGHKEEPSIE, NY.- From the time that European explorers and settlers first set foot in North America, they began to acquire works produced by Native hands. Pueblo-made pots served the needs of the Spanish in the Southwest; wampum belts recorded treaties between Whites and the Iroquois in the Northeast; Inuit sculptures were collected by explorers, whalers, and missionaries in the Canadian Arctic. Native peoples responded to the challenge of foreign occupation in complex ways that are charted in the history of their artifacts. European glass beads replaced those made of bone, shell, and stone; imported calico fabrics and American flags stimulated design innovations in various media; the Inuit adopted printmaking, an art form entirely new to them.

The creative ability of Native peoples to transform new ideas and materials is embodied in the Southwestern pottery, Inuit sculptures and images, and Iroquois beadwork and baskets of the new exhibit, Forms of Exchange: Art of Native Peoples from the Edward J. Guarino Collection, shown through September 3, 2006, at the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center. Drawn from an outstanding private collection in the Hudson River Valley, Forms of Exchange includes forty-seven works by historic and contemporary Native artists, dating from 1100 C.E. to the present. Guest curator and Vassar College professor of art Karen Lucic collaborated on the exhibit with her students in the seminar, The Politics of Display: Exhibiting Native American Art.

"A century ago, scholars and collectors were convinced that Native culture was destined to pass away in the face of civilization’s progress," said Lucic. "On the contrary, the works in Forms of Exchange, demonstrate the enduring vitality of Native art, and that it continues to evolve into the twenty-first century."

Linguists often note that Native languages actually have no word for “art,” yet aesthetic decisions inform every aspect of the works in this exhibition. In their original context, Native artifacts were inseparable from use -- not meant for a museum or another static setting. Moreover, both sacred and non-ceremonial objects reflected a spiritual dimension, and this endures in Native societies.

Many contemporary makers describe their creative process as more important than the final product. The goal of all life -- including creative endeavor -- is to “walk in beauty,” as the Navajo say. By the late-nineteenth century, however, most Native peoples were thoroughly entwined in mainstream settler culture, buying mass-produced goods rather than making their own.

Concurrently, they increased their production of objects for sale to others. As the market for Native crafts expanded, a new category of “fine art” developed, instigated largely by Native women’s efforts. Maria Martinez and Nampeyo were two Pueblo women whose works became eagerly sought by collectors, and by 1920, they were the first Pueblo potters to sign their creations. Their Inuit counterpart Kenojuak Ashevak earned institutional recognition, and in 1974 became the first Inuit artist elected to the Royal Canadian Academy of Art. Yet despite this evolution toward Westernized definitions and practices of art, a distinctive indigenous identity survives in Native work, sustained by ties to kin and community and expressed through iconography, techniques, and attitudes toward the creative process itself. In Forms of Exchange, an object such as the jar by contemporary New Mexico artist Susan Folwell, inspired by Native art of the Northwest and decorated with acrylic paints, displays the complexity of both identity and innovation in indigenous art. Works like Folwell’s combine with more traditional pieces in this exhibition to give a rich picture of past and present Native artistry.