On March 29, members and patrons of The Westmoreland Museum of Art in Greensburg were treated to a preview of “Mingled Visions: The Photographs of Edward S. Curtis and Will Wilson,” a major exhibition exploring the portrayal of Native Americans in American Art, on the eve of its opening to public view.
The exhibition juxtaposes Curtis’ photogravure prints documenting more than 80 tribes from 1907 to 1930 with the work of Wilson, a contemporary Dine (Navajo) photographer based in Santa Fe, N.M. Wilson is the creator of the Critical Indigenous Photographic Exchange, which documents the lives of contemporary Native Americans.
Wilson attended the preview party, where he and The Westmoreland’s Chief Curator Barbara Jones revealed “Talking Tintypes,” an app that adds sound and motion to seven of Wilson’s featured photos. Several iPads with the app installed are available for museum visitors to use.
Richard M. Scaife Director/CEO Anne Kraybill noted that “Mingled Visions” is accompanied by “The Outsider’s Gaze,” an exhibition of works from the museum’s collection and loans from the Pennsylvania Museum of Art, the Erie Art Museum, the Duquesne Club and the collection of Greg Murmen.
Those works are by 10 European American artists from the mid-19th and early 20th centuries and portray Native Americans from the stylized to the authentic.
“Powerful” was one word repeated throughout the gallery as guests explored the works.
Seen: Dr. George and Linda Austin, Phyllis Bertok and Rich Lopretto, Linda Blum, Ron Donoughe, Linda Earnest, Margaret DiVirgilio, Linda Boxx, John and Amy Faith, Alice Kaylor, Wilda Kaylor, Pam Kroh, George Leiner, Jim and Kathy Longacre, Philip and Maria McCalister, Michaelene McWhinney, Joanna Moyar and Brian McCall, Dr. Michael and Lilli Nieland, Mark Perrott, Pat Wallace and Kim Dickert-Wallace and Earl Dingus, demonstrating Native American flutes.
