Exhibition of Karl Bodmer's portraits of Indigenous Americans opens at The Met
Hotokáneheh, Piegan Blackfoot Man, 1833. Watercolor and graphite on paper, 11 15/16 x 17 1/16 in. 1986.49.288 Joslyn Art Museum, Gift of the Enron Art Foundation, 1986.
NEW YORK, NY
.- Karl Bodmer: North American Portraits will present a compelling visual response to Native North America through watercolors created in the 1830s by the Swiss draftsman Karl Bodmer (18091893). Bodmer was one of the most accomplished and prolific European artists to travel the Missouri River, and one of the first to document both the landscapes of the American interior and its Indigenous peoples.
The exhibitionon view at The Met from April 5 through July 25, 2021is the first to focus primarily on Bodmers portraiture. It will feature 35 portraits along with 6 landscape and genre scenes and several aquatints, all from Joslyn Art Museums comprehensive Bodmer holdings. The works will be arranged in three gallery spaces corresponding geographically to the 5000-mile round-trip journey from Saint Louis to present-day Montana. The exhibition will feature a multi-vocal approach with interpretive texts authored by Indigenous historians, artists, and tribal elders from the communities visited by Bodmer and the German explorer and naturalist, Maximilian, Prince of Wied-Neuwied, who hired Bodmer for the scientific expedition to the northwestern reaches of the Missouri River.