Christine Liggio

(609) 258-7615/cliggio@princeton.edu

Press Preview: Thursday, October 1, 2009, 10:30 a.m. until noon

RSVP: (609) 258-7615, cliggio@princeton.edu

 

PRINCETON, N.J.─The Princeton University Art Museum will present Gifts from the Ancestors: Ancient Ivories of Bering Strait, a major exhibition that brings to light the artistry and life practices of the hunters who worked across two millennia in what are now the American and Russian sides of Bering Strait. On view October 3, 2009, through January 10, 2010, the exhibition offers the opportunity to discover a little-known aspect of the art of the ancient Americas and represents a groundbreaking partnership between one of the world’s great research universities and the Native peoples of the Bering Strait region.

 

Gifts from the Ancestors features nearly 200 of the finest works of walrus ivory carving drawn from the Museum’s own holdings along with loans from more than twenty public and private collections around the globe, including rare examples from recent Russian excavations at Ekven, Chukotka, which will be exhibited for the first time in North America. In addition, works by award-winning contemporary artist and St. Lawrence Islander Susie Silook and master carvers Sergei Tegryl’kut and Mikhail Leyviteu from Chukotka, Russia, will be presented to bridge past and present and reveal how today’s ivory artists continue to be inspired by ancient forms and motifs and the millennia-old relationships among people, animals, and the environment.

 

“The extraordinary works of art on view in this exhibition are unlike the work of any other of the world’s cultures,” notes Museum Director James Steward. “They demand our close attention in their gentle, detailed beauty. Even as our focus here is primarily aesthetic and sociological, these survivals from the ancient past have a shocking timeliness as we increasingly think about how such indigenous artistic practices can survive the onslaught of climate change.”

 

The appearance of small, exquisitely carved ivories in the Bering Strait region marks an extraordinary florescence in the art and culture of North America. The discovery in the 1930s and 1940s of superb carvings of animals, mythical beasts, shape-shifting creatures, masks, and human figurines astounded scholars and excited collectors. Nevertheless, the remarkable objects that belong to this fascinating, sometimes frightening, world of hunting-related art remain largely unknown.

“Bering Sea Eskimo sculpture and engraved arts, like the art of Late Paleolithic peoples, illustrates the capacity for arctic hunting cultures to produce works of art as rich in spiritual content as they are in technological complexity and aesthetic beauty,” stated William W. Fitzhugh, curator of North American Archaeology and Director, Arctic Studies Center, Department of Anthropology, Smithsonian Institution, and guest co-curator of Gifts from the Ancestors. “Through these ornamented harpoons and hunting implements we begin to understand the connections between art, technology, and spiritual beliefs that have been central to the lives of hunting peoples for thousands of years.”

 

Archaeologists have spent nearly a century examining artifacts excavated from frozen sites and cemeteries along the shores of the Chukchi and Bering Seas, where peoples of shared Eurasian and North American heritage have resided for more than 2,000 years, to reveal the stories surrounding these ancient peoples and the unique art forms they created. These artifacts, which include hunting implements, tools, ornaments, ritual objects, and figures in human and animal form, have traveled varied routes from past to present, and in so doing have acquired a multitude of meanings and purposes. The exhibition, related catalogue, and Web site explore the historical, cultural, and archaeological significance of the ivories as well as the more recent social issues surrounding these objects from myriad perspectives, including those of indigenous communities, Native artists, archaeologists, museums, and participants in the art market. 

Bering Strait is a narrow ocean gateway between the Chukchi and Bering Seas. The Strait, which at its narrowest point is eighty-five kilometers wide, connects the Arctic and Pacific Ocean basins and is the point of closest proximity between Asia and North America. The Strait was once a land bridge connecting the two continents at the end of the Pleistocene era (ca. 10,000 B.C.) when the sea level was low. Even today, Big Diomede Island (belonging to Russia) and Little Diomede Island (part of the United States) provide “stepping stones” across the channel, bridging the two continents.

Gifts from the Ancestors is accompanied by a fully illustrated 320-page catalogue, published by the Princeton University Art Museum and distributed by Yale University Press. The catalogue illuminates the ancient ivories by examining their aesthetic qualities, cultural complexity, and individual histories. Many of the objects discussed are from recent Russian excavations and are presented here for the first time in English; others are from private collections rarely on view to the public. The essays, written by an international group of scholars, adopt a refreshing interdisciplinary approach that gives voice to the various competing, and now sometimes cooperating, interested groups, including Native peoples, archaeologists, museums, art historians, art dealers, and private collectors.

 

In conjunction with Gifts from the Ancestors, an exhibition of works by contemporary Alaskan Native artists, Dry Ice: Alaska Native Artists and the Landscape, will be on view from October 1 through November 21, 2009 at the Arts Council of Princeton.

 

Gifts from the Ancestors and Dry Ice are part of a collaborative project between the Alaska Native Arts Foundation, the Arts Council of Princeton, and the Princeton University Art Museum. For information on Dry Ice and related events, visit the Arts Council online at Arts Council.

 

Gifts from the Ancestors is organized by the Princeton University Art Museum with guest curators William W. Fitzhugh, curator of North American Archaeology and Director, Arctic Studies Center, Department of Anthropology, Smithsonian Institution and Julie Hollowell, Nancy Schaenen Visiting Scholar, Prindle Institute for Ethics, and visiting assistant professor of Anthropology, DePauw University; and Bryan R. Just, Peter Jay Sharp, Class of 1952, Curator and Lecturer in the Art of the Ancient Americas, Princeton University Art Museum.

A Web site for Gifts from the Ancestors, slated to publish on October 1, has been developed to complement and extend the reach of the exhibition. The Web site includes resources for teachers, information on Alaska's indigenous communities today, and global environmental change and its impact on the Bering Strait region. 

October 3, 1 p.m.–4:30 p.m.

McCosh 50, Princeton University

The Art Museum brings together experts on cultural property policy and ethics from both Alaska and Princeton University to explore the complex issues surrounding cultural heritage and patrimony as it relates to the digging, sale, and display of ancient ivories from Bering Strait. A second panel will discuss the effects of climate change and its environmental and social impact in the Bering Strait region. Bryan Just, Peter Jay Sharp Curator of the Ancient Americas, will introduce the program, and William W. Fitzhugh, Director, Arctic Studies Center, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, will provide the keynote address.

 

The symposium is co-sponsored by the Princeton University Art Museum and the Center for Arts and Cultural Policy Studies, Princeton University.

 

October 3, 5 p.m.

McCosh 50, Princeton University

William W. Fitzhugh, Director, Arctic Studies Center, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution

 

6 p.m.–7:30 p.m., Princeton University Art Museum

October 4, 12-4 p.m.

Hinds Plaza, adjacent to the Princeton Public Library

Discover Alaskan Native cultural heritage with more than twenty-five artists, athletes, storytellers, and performers demonstrating traditional crafts, games, music, and dance; plus, hands-on art projects the entire family will enjoy.

 

This special event has been co-organized by the Princeton University Art Museum, the Alaska Native Arts Foundation, the Arts Council of Princeton, and the Princeton Public Library.

October 15, 7 p.m. and 10 p.m.

McCormick 101, Princeton University

A reception will be held each night in the Museum from 9–10 p.m.

 

October 22, 7 p.m. and 10 p.m.

McCormick 101, Princeton University

A reception will be held each night in the Museum from 9–10 p.m.

 

November 19, 7 p.m. and 10 p.m.

McCormick 101, Princeton University

A reception will be held each night in the Museum from 9–10 p.m.

Bryan Just, Peter Jay Sharp Curator of Art of the Ancient Americas

November 20, 12:30 p.m., and November 22, 3 p.m.

 

Gifts from the Ancestors: Ancient Ivories of Bering Strait is made possible by the National Endowment for the Humanities; the Peter Jay Sharp Foundation; Perry J. Lewis, Class of 1959, and Basha Lewis; and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. The opening reception and associated programming have been supported by the Friends and Partners of the Princeton University Art Museum.

Founded in 1882, the Princeton University Art Museum is one of the finest art museums in the country. Its collection features approximately 72,000 works ranging from ancient to contemporary art, and concentrating geographically on the Mediterranean regions, Western Europe, China, the United States, and Latin America, with particular strengths in Chinese painting and calligraphy, art of the ancient Americas, and pictorial photography. As a public institution, the Museum is committed to serving the local community, the region, and beyond through innovative and dynamic programming, original research and new scholarship, an active loan program, and the organization of touring exhibitions. By collaborating with experts across many disciplines, fostering sustained study of original works of art, and uniting scholarship with broad accessibility, the Museum contributes to the development of critical thinking and visual literacy at Princeton University and enhances the civic fabric of our nation.

The Princeton University Art Museum is located at the heart of the Princeton University campus, and only a short walk from the shops and restaurants on Princeton’s Nassau Street. Museum admission is free and open to the public. Hours are Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday, 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Thursday, 10:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m., and Sunday, 1:00 to 5:00 p.m. Free highlights tours of the collection are given every Saturday and Sunday at 2:00 p.m. The Museum is closed Mondays and major holidays. For information, please visit the Museum’s Web site at http://artmuseum.princeton.edu or call (609) 258-3788.