Vue de l'exposition "Indiens des Plaines"
08 Apr 2014 20 Jul 2014

Indiens des Plaines

The exhibition consists of 140 objects and artworks which present a continuous view of the aesthetic traditions of the Plains Indians, from the 16th to the 20th century, offering an unprecedented vision of these traditions.

About the Exhibition

The power of their culture is demonstrated in particular in the continuity of visual styles, even though during these three centuries of contact with Europeans and Americans the territory of the plains was subject to fundamental cultural and political changes. This continuity in forms and designs is revealed in the exhibition by means of a great variety of objects and media: paintings and drawings, sculptures in stone, wood, antler and shell, embroideries using porcupine quills and glass beads, personal ornaments made from feathers etc.

Composite objects, assemblages created from a variety of materials and techniques characteristic of different types of art in the plains are also presented. Costumes painted in figurative and geometrical patterns, richly decorated garments with high symbolic value, ceremonial and sculptural objects constitute a significant percentage of the works exhibited.

  • curator

    • Gaylord Torrence, Senior Curator of American Indian Art, Nelson-Atkins Museum of Arts, Kansas City, United States
  • Place:   Galerie Jardin
  • TimeSlots:  
    From Tuesday 08 April 2014 at Sunday 20 July 2014
  • Closed on monday
    Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday:  10:30 am-07:00 pm
    Thursday:  10:30 am-10:00 pm
  • Accessibility:
    • Handicap visuel
    • LSF
    • Handicap mental
    • Handicap moteur
  • Public:   All publics
  • Categorie : Exhibitions
Vue de l'exposition "Indiens des Plaines"
00:00 / 00:00
Indiens des plaines | Bande-annonce de l'exposition
Exposition "Indiens des plaines" au musée du quai Branly, du 8 avril au 20 juillet 2014. Pour en savoir plus : http://www.quaibranly.fr/fr/programmation/expositions/a-l-affiche/indiens-des-plaines.html
2:28 min

Exhibit Overview

After an initial section featuring contemporary works by Native American Indians, the objects are presented chronologically from the period preceding contact with the Europeans up until the creation of the reserves. The exhibit thus reveals the continuum of the artistic expression of the Plains Indians – with forms which emerge, continue, evolve, disappear then re-emerge – against a backdrop of ceaseless cultural transformations.

The exhibit is divided into seven sections:

  • Artistic revival in contemporary life, 1965-2014
  • Communities and diasporas, 1910-1965
  • Ancient peoples, pre-contact
  • Life on the Great Plains, 1700-1820
  • A flourishing culture, 1820-1860
  • The death of the bison, 1860-1880
  • In the remains of the ancestral lands, 1880-1910

A special cross-section displays an exceptional selection of five painted skins from different time periods. The oldest dates from the first half of the 18th century and the most recent from the end of the 19th century; patterns are both abstract and figurative.

Plains Tribes from the 1800s to the 1850s

A map details the locations of the Plains tribes from the 1800s to the 1850s. It provides only a general overview and does not reflect the tribal migrations which have modified the topography of each tribe’s territories over the years. Likewise it does not illustrate the displacement of the Woodlands populations to the reserves in the Eastern Plains – now the states of Kansas and Oklahoma.

Stereotypes

The exhibit includes a cinema room which will screen a program entitled “Stereotypes”, devised by the critic and film historian Michel Ciment. Approx. 20 minutes in duration, this program includes extracts from films by Cecil B. De Mille, John Ford, William A. Wellman, etc. Hollywood projected various stereotypes of the Indian, a central figure in the Western film genre. In the 1920s, more than 150 of 1600 Westerns featured “Redskins”. The image of the savage warrior daubed with paint, bloodthirsty and often drunk, would dominate from 1930 to 1950. Cecil B. DeMille, ever sensitive to the spirit of the time, presented an archetypal version in The Plainsman (1936). John Ford, who loved to visit the Indian tribes and film on their land, still depicted them as merciless aggressors in Stagecoach (1939), before repenting with Cheyenne Autumn (1964) which was about the extinction of a race. At the beginning of the 1970s, the environmental movement and the Vietnam War triggered a reinterpretation of the conquest of the West. Love between a white man and an Indian princess would also become a leitmotif in many of these films, suggesting an improbable and romantic reconciliation between the conquering whites and the victims of an ethnocide.

Atlas Wall

In parallel to the exhibit, the visitor will also be able to learn about the significant events in the history of the Plains Indians, through a selection of geographical maps, diagrams, texts and chronological and iconographic elements presented on a large “atlas wall”. The main themes presented are as follows:

  • Lewis and Clark Expedition (1804-1806)
  • The Lords of the Plains
  • Treaties and Armed Conflicts
  • Spiritual and Cultural Resilience

Multimedia game for a young audience

This game features Yakari and Arc-en-Ciel [Rainbow], the two figures from the famous comic book. They invite children into their tribe to teach them all the secrets of the life of the Plains Indians. How do you erect a tepee? What can we produce with a bison? What is a dreamcatcher for?

Tactile Devices

To ensure that all visitors, including the visually-impaired, can access these works, four tactile interpretations of objects in the Museum’s collections can be explored with the fingertips. Tactile space in the exhibit produced thanks to technology and sponsorship from Mikli Diffusion France

Exhibit on Tour

After being displayed in Paris, the exhibit will be shown in the United States from Friday September 19th 2014 to Sunday January 11th 2015 at the  Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, then from Monday March 2nd to Sunday May 10th 2015 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.