Innovation

Unrecorded Yup'ik artist

Basket

1940-1960
coiled, woven, and sewn rye grass on a bundle foundation with braided handles and plaited centers, commercial dye
Gift of George Gordon
1990.3.32 A-B
About the Artist

Unrecorded Yup'ik artist

Historic or customary items (such as the ones in this exhibition) were separated from their original makers and communities, resulting in a difficult, challenging history of collecting and exhibiting Native art. An unintended anonymity within Native art has occurred because the names of artists were not recorded at the time their art was collected. Past anthropologists and collectors were more interested in acquiring the items; the artists’ names were not a priority for them. Despite this error in judgement, these artists were known by his/her/their community. We acknowledge this relationship in our text labels that read “unrecorded artist of”.

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