Art of Native America: The Charles and Valerie Diker Collection

By Gaylord Torrence with Ned Blackhawk and Sylvia Yount

This landmark publication reevaluates historical Native American art as a crucial but under-examined component of American art history. The Charles and Valerie Diker Collection, a transformative promised gift to The Metropolitan Museum of Art, includes masterworks from more than fifty cultures across North America. The works highlighted in this volume span centuries, from before contact with European settlers to the early twentieth century. In this beautifully illustrated volume, featuring all new photography, the innovative visions of known and unknown makers are presented in a wide variety of forms, from painting, sculpture, and drawing to regalia, ceramics, and baskets. The book provides key insights into the art, culture, and daily life of culturally distinct Indigenous peoples along with critical and popular perceptions over time, revealing that to engage Native art is to reconsider the very meaning of America.

Gaylord Torrence is Fred and Virginia Merrill Senior Curator of American Indian Art at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri.

Ned Blackhawk is Professor of History and American Studies at Yale University, New Haven.

Sylvia Yount is Lawrence A. Fleischman Curator in Charge of the American Wing at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

Art of Native America has won a Bronze Award in the Art Category of the Foreword Book of the Year Award.