Western Spirit: Scottsdale’s Museum of the West has announced a major new exhibition on the art, career and research of Edward S. Curtis, whose photographs of Native Americans have captivated the world for more than a century.
Light and Legacy: The Art and Techniques of Edward S. Curtis will open October 19 and feature major highlights from the Tim Peterson Family Collection. The exhibition is co-curated by Tricia Loscher, Western Spirit’s assistant director for collections, exhibitions and research, and Tim Peterson, museum trustee and noted collector of Western art.
Edward S. Curtis (1868-1952), The Potter – Nampeyo, platinum photograph, 5 13/16 x 7⁷/16”. The Tim Peterson Family Collection.
One of the highlights of the exhibition will be original and authentic Curtis photography. Many Curtis exhibitions undertaken in recent decades have relied on contemporary reproductions, and Light and Legacy will focus on as much original material as possible.
Edward S. Curtis (1868-1952), The Three Chiefs, albumen photograph, 11¼ x 15½”. The Tim Peterson Family Collection.
“Based upon years of collecting Curtis’ artwork, Tim Peterson, Scottsdale’s Museum of the West’s Trustee and Western art collector, has used his discerning eye for curating this exhibition, as he examined image quality and print condition, his appreciation of rarity and the photographic process, and his deep understanding of connoisseurship,” writes Loscher. “This exhibition offers for the first time an opportunity to view such a breadth and depth of diversity of the photographers’ work and lifetime achievements and is the largest Curtis exhibition anywhere to date. On display is the 20-volume publication The North American Indian, photogravures, original copper plates from which the photogravures were printed, goldtones, original photographs including platinum prints, silver bromides, silver gelatins, cyanotypes, glass plate negatives, a variety of ephemera and musical recordings that have been selected from thousands that were originally recorded by Curtis and his field team, and were considered by Curtis as part of his ethnological data for The North American Indian.”
Edward S. Curtis (1868-1952), Son of the Desert, 1904, silver photograph, 13 x 10”. The Tim Peterson Family Collection.
The exhibition will remain on view through April 8, 2023. For more information visit
scottsdalemuseumwest.org.
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