Frieze Masters 2018

Donald Ellis Gallery is pleased to announce its participation, for the third year, in Frieze New York to be held in Randall’s Island Park, New York, from May 2-5, 2019 with VIP previews on May 1st and May 2nd.

The gallery will present a curated exhibition of prominent historical works of art by Native American artists from various cultures and geographic regions.

Among the highlights will be a painted “War Record” attributed to the Blackfoot warrior Big Spring providing a pictorial narrative of his major life events. It is one of a small number of large-scale canvases commissioned by the Great Northern Railway for their hotels in Glacier National Park, Montana, to promote tourist travel to the West in the early 20th century. Con- sistent with previous years, we will exhibit a prominent group of rare late 19th and early 20th century Plains Indian Ledger drawings, along side a highly select group of decorated rawhide containers known as parfleche. Pictographic drawing on hides, and later paper, as a means of recording history and storytelling was the domain of Plains Indian warriors. In contrast, the highly abstracted geometric designs on parfleche were solely the work of Plains Indian women.

The recent inclusion of historical Native American art in fairs such as TEFAF, Frieze New York and Frieze Masters, along with the recent donation and exhibition of 100 Native American works of art donated by Charles and Valerie Diker to the Metropolitan Museum of Art marks a turning point in our understanding and appreciation of this extraordinary and previously overlooked field of art.

Download Frieze Masters 2018 Press Release