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.

George Wharton James Collection
in the Southwest Museum of the American
Indian Collection, P.445, Autry Museum
of the American West 

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

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.

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.