2019 GRANTEES

Brooklyn Museum

The Brooklyn Museum is one of the largest art museums in the United States and one of the premier art institutions in the world. Its collections include a wide range of objects from ancient masterpieces to contemporary art, representing almost every culture in the world. It is housed in a 560,000-square-foot Beaux-Arts building. Ongoing presentations, as varied as the vast Egyptian section and the impressive American art galleries, are also an important draw. Another permanent highlight is the museum’s Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art, where Judy Chicago’s Dinner Party has been on view since 1980. The Brooklyn Museum is a dynamic institution with compelling contemporary art exhibitions and programming that are as innovative as they are diverse.

Installation view, Jeffrey Gibson: When Fire Is Applied to a Stone It Cracks, Brooklyn Museum, February 14, 2020 - January 10, 2021. Photos: Jonathan Dorado

Jeffrey Gibson: When Fire Is Applied to a Stone It Cracks.

Jeffrey Gibson, an artist of Choctaw and Cherokee descent, incorporates elements of Native American art and craft into his practice, creating a rich visual and conceptual dialogue between his work and the histories that inform it. In Jeffrey Gibson: When Fire Is Applied to a Stone It Cracks, he selected objects from our collection, which are presented alongside his recent work. The resulting multimedia, floor-to-ceiling installation questions long-held institutional categorizations and representations of Indigenous peoples and Native American art. It also provides a context for Gibson’s work and acts as a contemporary lens through which to see historical works by both Indigenous and non-Native peoples.

Gibson’s works on view include garments, beaded punching bags, paintings on hide and canvas, and ceramic vessels. Collection objects include moccasins, headdresses, ceramics, rawhide, and examples of beadwork and appliqué. The exhibition also features rarely exhibited materials from our Archives and Library Special Collections that shed light on the formation of our Native American collection in the early twentieth century by curator Stewart Culin.

Jeffrey Gibson: When Fire Is Applied to a Stone It Cracks is organized by Jeffrey Gibson and Christian Ayne Crouch, Curatorial Advisor, with Eugenie Tsai, John and Barbara Vogelstein Senior Curator, Contemporary Art, and Erika Umali, Assistant Curator of Collections, with support from Nancy Rosoff, Andrew W. Mellon Senior Curator, Arts of the Americas, and Molly Seegers, Museum Archivist, Brooklyn Museum.