The Center for Arts of Indian America, a non-profit corporation devoted to the advancement of Indian art, will present a showing of "Contemporary Indian Painting, Sculpture and Crafts" from the collection of the Bureau of Indian Affairs from Wednesday, July,17 through Sept. 6.
The showing will be free to the public in the seventh floor Art Gallery of the Department of Interior building, 18th and C Streets, Monday through Friday, from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
Scores of pieces of Indian artwork, in many cases recently returned from collections which have been shown in a number of foreign countries, will be featured. Typical is Hopi Otellie Loloma's bronze sculpture of a lonely little Indian child, titled, "Meditation", which has been on loan to the U. S. Embassy in Spain for the past two years.
Some of the newer artists are exemplified by Colville Indian, Lawney Reyes, of Bellevue, Wash., whose large wooden, carved panels have been hung on each side of the entrance to the Gallery. Using an oil on wood media, the artist has depicted a raven and eagle, respectively, on the panels, with effective use of abalone shell inlay work.
Over 30 different tribes are represented in the collection, including such professionals as Osage, Yeffe Kimball, now of New York; Fritz Scholder, California Mission Indian, how an art instructor at the Bureau of Indian Affairs' internationally famous Institute of American Indian Art in Santa Fe, N. M.
Among the works of art students is that of a State of Washington Snohomish, Henry Gobin, now doing graduate work at the San Francisco Art Institute. He is represented in the collection by a ceramic jar, although he is equally famous as a painter.
Media used includes acrylics, tempera, oils, casein, sand (for a Navajo sand painting), wood, marble, soapstone, clay, and various materials used for basket weaving.
The Bureau's collection has been purchased from time to time materially to encourage Indian Artists. Working through the Center, those president is Mrs. Stewart L. Udall, wife of the Secretary of the Interior, exhibits have been formed which have been loaned to schools throughout the District's Metropolitan area; other displays have been put together for showing in various government buildings, including Interior and the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and the Center's "Arts and the Embassies" program has drawn high critical praise, as representative Indian art has been loaned to many U. S. Embassies.
