AFA 22nd Anniversary

22nd Anniversary 74 www.afamag.com | w ww.incollect.com Patrick Dean Hubbell (b. 1986), Diné (Navajo), born 1986, HONORING OUR FOREMOTHERS, 2020. Oil, acrylic, and natural earth pigment on canvas. H. 72¾, W. 51⅞, D. 1¼ in. Gift of Burt and Lydia Adelman (2021.8.1). © Patrick Dean Hubbell. Courtesy of the Peabody Essex Museum. Photo by Kathy Tarantola. Patrick Dean Hubbell’s arrangement of black and white stars and stripes references the instantly recognizable iconography of the American flag and the geometric lines in Diné (Navajo) textiles. His highly expressive mark-making in the form of T-shaped crosses evokes the flag’s stars and symbolizes Spider Woman, an important figure in Diné cosmology who taught her people how to weave and create beauty. The title refers to two key points for the Diné: the importance of matrilineal descent, the line from a female ancestor to a descendant; and the interconnected relationship with the natural world in which Navajo philosophies are rooted. S ince its founding in 1799, the Peabody Essex Museum (PEM) has collected and exhibited Native American art and culture as well as the fine and decorative art traditions of the United States. Celebrating the aesthetic strengths of PEM’s holdings, a new installation opening February 26, 2022 will include over 250 works across media, including sculpture, paintings, textiles and costumes, furniture, decorative arts, works on paper, archaeology, installations, and video. Artworks will span in time from 10,000 years ago to the present. The installation will integrate these collections across 10,000 square feet and will be on view for a ten-year period. PEM has the oldest ongoing collection of Native American art in the western hemisphere, world-renowned for its outstanding aesthetic quality, condition, provenance, and span of time, media, and geography. As a thought-leader in the field, the museum has been exhibiting contemporary and historic Native art together since 1995, demonstrating continuity in creative expression and making select contemporary acquisitions to accelerate that dialogue. Peabody Essex Museum’s New Gallery of Native American and American Art by Sarah N. Chasse, Karen Kramer and Lan Morgan text continues on page 83