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Listen "S2 Ep1371: JEWELS with JULES Edward S. Curtis Exhibit @James Museum of Western & Wildlife Art "
Episode Synopsis
In this episode of JEWELS with JULES, we get a behind-the-scenes tour with Caitlin Pendola, Associate Curator of The James Museum of Western & Wildlife Art and preview the new exhibit - Edward S. Curtis: Photographer of His Time which opened 11/8 and runs through 3/29. This landmark exhibition offers a rare look at Edward S. Curtis Photographs and includes a special portrait gallery installation focused on the individuals who inspired Curtis. This exhibit is wonderful homage to the culture during November's Indigenous Americans month. PHOTO: Edward S. Curtis, Jackson, Interpreter at Kotzebue,1928
💛 The landmark exhibition offers a rare look at Curtis’ work, tracing his three-decade photographic career alongside broader shifts in American art. At the heart of the exhibition is a striking special Portrait Gallery Installation featuring a powerful display of many of the individuals who shaped his vision. The special Portrait Gallery Installation also launches The James Museum’s research initiative to further research and reinterpret his body of work. Curtis (1858-1952), an American photographer and ethnologist, is best known for his extensive photographic record of Native American cultures documented in his prodigious early 20th-century publication, The North American Indian.
💛 This landmark exhibition, the first of its kind, reframes Curtis as more than a documentarian. He was also an artist influenced by the major cultural and artistic movements of his era. Curtis’ early photographs reflect the emotive qualities of Romanticism and Pictorialism, while his later works echo the bold experimentation of Modernism and the grounded realism of Regionalism. Rooted in the Arts & Crafts Movement, his monumental project, The North American Indian, stands as one of the most ambitious publishing efforts in American history, blending artistry and cultural documentation in ways that continue to resonate.
💛 Visitors will encounter Curtis’ work in conversation with artwork by his contemporaries—including Dorothea Lange, Thomas Hart Benton and Edward Steichen—that situate him firmly within the broader artistic and cultural movements of his era. This framing provides a richer understanding of the shifting public opinions of the time and deepening recognition of the ways in which artists were responding to these cultural changes. Complementing the exhibition is the special Portrait Gallery Installation, which shifts attention from the art movements that influenced Curtis to the individuals who shaped his vision. Featuring 84 Native American portraits, approximately one from each Native American tribe Curtis visited as part of his seminal project, The North American Indian , the Portrait Gallery Installation recasts the subjects as active participants and collaborators on Curtis’s massive project. While the sitters have sometimes been cast as bystanders or victims, visitors are reminded of their agency as active and informed participants. The research for the installation, part of the Museum’s broader initiative, focuses on uncovering the identities and stories of sitters whose names were never recorded.
💛Collection and complemented by loans from museums, private collections, and foundations nationwide, the exhibition features more than 160 pieces within the 2 sections of the exhibition. A series of informative and engaging programs accompanies the exhibition, offering visitors deeper insight into Curtis’ work and its reflection of the changing world around him.
💛Programming begins with a Special Curators’ Talk: Edward S. Curtis: The Native American Portrait Installation November 19 @ 6–7 pm Join the exhibition's curator Caitlin Pendola and Ernest Gendron, co-curator of the Portrait Installation, for behind-the-scenes insights into their process of humanizing and contextualizing these historic images-from decoding handwritten clues to navigating curatorial choices.
💛 For more information on the exhibition and The James Museum, visit thejamesmuseum.org or follow @jamesmuseum on Instagram and Facebook.
#jamesmuseum #jewelswithjules #museums #westernart #edwardscurtis #photograph #indigenousamericansmonth
💛 The landmark exhibition offers a rare look at Curtis’ work, tracing his three-decade photographic career alongside broader shifts in American art. At the heart of the exhibition is a striking special Portrait Gallery Installation featuring a powerful display of many of the individuals who shaped his vision. The special Portrait Gallery Installation also launches The James Museum’s research initiative to further research and reinterpret his body of work. Curtis (1858-1952), an American photographer and ethnologist, is best known for his extensive photographic record of Native American cultures documented in his prodigious early 20th-century publication, The North American Indian.
💛 This landmark exhibition, the first of its kind, reframes Curtis as more than a documentarian. He was also an artist influenced by the major cultural and artistic movements of his era. Curtis’ early photographs reflect the emotive qualities of Romanticism and Pictorialism, while his later works echo the bold experimentation of Modernism and the grounded realism of Regionalism. Rooted in the Arts & Crafts Movement, his monumental project, The North American Indian, stands as one of the most ambitious publishing efforts in American history, blending artistry and cultural documentation in ways that continue to resonate.
💛 Visitors will encounter Curtis’ work in conversation with artwork by his contemporaries—including Dorothea Lange, Thomas Hart Benton and Edward Steichen—that situate him firmly within the broader artistic and cultural movements of his era. This framing provides a richer understanding of the shifting public opinions of the time and deepening recognition of the ways in which artists were responding to these cultural changes. Complementing the exhibition is the special Portrait Gallery Installation, which shifts attention from the art movements that influenced Curtis to the individuals who shaped his vision. Featuring 84 Native American portraits, approximately one from each Native American tribe Curtis visited as part of his seminal project, The North American Indian , the Portrait Gallery Installation recasts the subjects as active participants and collaborators on Curtis’s massive project. While the sitters have sometimes been cast as bystanders or victims, visitors are reminded of their agency as active and informed participants. The research for the installation, part of the Museum’s broader initiative, focuses on uncovering the identities and stories of sitters whose names were never recorded.
💛Collection and complemented by loans from museums, private collections, and foundations nationwide, the exhibition features more than 160 pieces within the 2 sections of the exhibition. A series of informative and engaging programs accompanies the exhibition, offering visitors deeper insight into Curtis’ work and its reflection of the changing world around him.
💛Programming begins with a Special Curators’ Talk: Edward S. Curtis: The Native American Portrait Installation November 19 @ 6–7 pm Join the exhibition's curator Caitlin Pendola and Ernest Gendron, co-curator of the Portrait Installation, for behind-the-scenes insights into their process of humanizing and contextualizing these historic images-from decoding handwritten clues to navigating curatorial choices.
💛 For more information on the exhibition and The James Museum, visit thejamesmuseum.org or follow @jamesmuseum on Instagram and Facebook.
#jamesmuseum #jewelswithjules #museums #westernart #edwardscurtis #photograph #indigenousamericansmonth
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