Presented in "First American Art: The Charles and Valerie Diker Collection of American Indian Art"
Some 200 American Indian objects from the private collection of Charles and Valerie Diker will go on view at the National Museum of the American Indian in Lower Manhattan on Saturday, April 24. "First American Art: The Valerie and Charles Diker Collection of American Indian Art" will demonstrate the similar aesthetic sensibilities shared by Native American objects from different North American cultures. The exhibition will continue through October 2005.
"First American Art" includes clothing and regalia decorated with dyed porcupine quills and glass trade beads from the cultures of the Great Plains and Eastern woodlands, baskets and pottery from the Southwest and California; and Plains ledger drawings. The exhibition will be organized according to seven different concepts on Native aesthetic systems—idea, emotion, intimacy, movement, integrity, vocabulary and composition—which originally emerged from discussions with contemporary artists and scholars.
Highlights of the exhibition will include a pair of Cheyenne baby moccasins, unusual because of its beaded soles; an elaborately carved Haida raven rattle, an example of an object rare within its own culture—as these rattles were brought out around once a year, and seen from a distance; and a Mi'kmaq tea cozy, an object with European origins that was created with European trade goods and a Native aesthetic. Also included will be one of the most expressive drawings made by Plains artists in the 19th century—a drawing from the Henderson ledger that depicts an individual's supernatural encounter through the use of a dramatic spatial construction.
Longtime residents of New York City, Charles and Valerie Diker collect American and European modern and contemporary art as well as Native American work—reflecting their universal and borderless philosophy about art and aesthetics. Mr. Diker, a registered investment adviser, is chairman of the board of Cantel Medical Corp. and a managing parner of Diker Management LLC. Mrs. Diker is a writer and philanthropist. They are co-chairs of Board of Directors of the museum's George Gustav Heye Center in New York City. Mr. Diker also serves on the national board of the museum.
"This exhibition represents Charles and Valerie Diker's belief in the artistic and intellectual importance of the Native voice," said W. Richard West (Southern Cheyenne), director of the National Museum of the American Indian. "Their collection, which reflects their rare vision and sensibility, honors the cultural and artistic diversity of the Native peoples of the Western Hemisphere."
"First American Art: The Charles and Valerie Diker Collection" has been co-curated by Bruce Bernstein, assistant director for Cultural Resources, and Gerald McMaster (Plains Cree), deputy assistant director for Cultural Resources. A 256-page catalogue of the exhibition with essays by Bernstein, McMaster, Margaret Dubin and Donald Kuspit will be published by the National Museum of the American Indian in association with the University of Washington Press and will retail for $29.95 (soft cover) and $50 (hardcover).
The Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian's George Gustav Heye Center is located at One Bowling Green in New York City, across from Battery Park. The museum is free and open everyday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and on Thursdays until 8 p.m. Call (212) 514-3700 for general information and (212) 514-3888 for a recording about the museum's public programs. By subway, the museum may be reached by the 1 or 9 to South Ferry, the 4 or 5 to Bowling Green or the N or R to Whitehall Street.

First American Art celebrates the rich aesthetic traditions of North American Indians through a series of concepts that define the aesthetic realm in Native American art. The key concepts – ideas, emotion, movement, integrity, intimacy, composition, and vocabulary--were chosen at a recent gathering of Native and non-Native artists and scholars, and are used in examining this extraordinary collection. The works included here, from many tribal traditions across Canada and the United States, are manifestations of the cultures from which they spring. They add individual or tribal points of view to an already diverse body of scholarship on the subject of Indians. Various perspectives interpret an art object as commodity, artifact, specimen, heirloom, objet d’art, treasured cultural heritage, or sacred emblem. This book attempts to answer the question, What would be the Native perspective?
First American Art provides the welcome opportunity to explore and celebrate the aesthetic achievements, creativity, and diverse artistic traditions of North American Native peoples. By offering an aesthetic analysis of the underlying spiritual and cultural inspirations and values that inform these works, this book gives a more complete picture of what is meant by Native art. [ read more ]