Yosemite and California Baskets at the Heard Museum

Baskets by Tina Charlie (Mono Lake Paiute, 1869 - 1962)

Last autumn, I was thrilled to be able to do a little research on baskets in storage at the Heard Museum. At the same time, it was opening weekend for: David Hockney’s Yosemite and Masters of California Basketry   https://heard.org/hockney/

My time spent in the galleries culminated in the exhibition review in the current issue of First American Art Magazine,  http://firstamericanartmagazine.com/current-issue/

The baskets are on loan from Yosemite National Park, various museums and private collectors, plus a few from the Heard's own collection. David Hockney's (British, b. 1937) works include digital art and photographic collages.

Showpiece basket by Mary Benson (Pomo, 1877-1930)

Carrie Bethel baskets (Mono Lake Paiute, 1898-1974)

Heard Museum Basket 818BA-a&b from
the Fred Harvey collection

Heard Museum curators put together an outstanding companion exhibition Beyond Yosemite: California Basketry from the Heard Museum Collection. I snapped a few photos here, including my only selfie.

A few weeks later, I was working on another project, and was reviewing some of the online Southwest Museum Collection items on the Autry Center of the American West website.  Imagine my surprise when I spotted this beauty:

http://collections.theautry.org/mwebcgi/mweb.exe?request=record;id=M205587;type=102

Sorry I can't post the photo here, I am trying to slog through the Autry's "Terms and Conditions: Terms of Use" and hope to be able to add it in the future.  For now, click on the link to see that it is absolutely the same basket (verified by Heard curators when I sent them the link!).  The postcard photograph is identified as P.445, George Wharton James Collection, from the Braun Research Library/Southwest Museum. Postcard identifies it as a Hupa basket, made between 1895-1923.

As I continue my blog, I am learning about what I can post without permission, copyrights, and personal permission before including names and circumstances.  It's a work in progress.

In the meantime, if you are in Phoenix AZ before April 20, 2020, I urge you to see these incredible baskets. And the David Hockney art is spectacular as well, but it's not the focus of my basket blog.