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BGC Gallery will resume its exhibition programming this September with the return of Sèvres Extraordinaire! Sculpture from 1740 until Today, originally slated for fall 2024.
Bard Graduate Center is an advanced graduate research institute in New York City dedicated to the cultural histories of the material world. Our MA and PhD degree programs, Gallery exhibitions, research initiatives, scholarly publications and public programs explore new ways of thinking about decorative arts, design history, and material culture.

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28th Annual Iris Foundation Awards
Honoring Irene Roosevelt Aitken, Dr. Julius Bryant, Dr. Meredith Martin, and Katherine Purcell
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BGC Gallery reopens this September with the return of Sèvres Extraordinaire: Sculpture from 1740 until Today, originally slated for fall 2024.

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The Bard Graduate Center Gallery produces multiple exhibitions and publications each year, serving as a vital center of learning and a catalyst for engagement in the interrelated disciplines of decorative arts, design, and material culture. The gallery is celebrated in the museum world for its longstanding legacy of landmark projects dedicated to significant—yet often understudied—figures and movements in the history of decorative arts and design; these exhibitions and publications typically represent the definitive intervention on the artists and objects they investigate. BGC Gallery is also committed to generating and supporting a vast range of diverse presentations, small and large, that challenge traditional approaches to object inquiry; these examinations of material culture explore the human experience as manifest in our creation and use of “things” of all kinds. Whether originating in internal research and expertise, or in collaboration with external subject specialists, these endeavors prioritize rigorous scholarship while seeking to adhere to the field’s highest standards in production and design.




Unknown maker, Nuu-chah-nulth
Cedar bark, spruce root, grass, dye
Collected by Israel W. Powell between 1880 and 1885
Donated by Heber R. Bishop
American Museum of Natural History 16/725AB

In the 1860s, Nuu-chah-nulth women started a cottage industry weaving small baskets (piika-uu), basketry-covered bottles, and other fine woven objects for the expanding curio trade. They typically decorated utilitarian baskets with geometric rather than pictorial designs, although they had long utilized canoe motifs in whaling scenes on basketry hats. This wrapped-twined basket features conventional geometric patterns along with what appear to be Euro-American ships and Native canoes. Its interior shows vibrant colors and little to no sign of use, suggesting that it was produced for and consumed within the tourist market. With the influx of foreigners to the region, weavers adopted innovative forms and motifs—including those derived from Western wares and ships—to maintain their products’ aesthetic desirability. Boat imagery provided a common theme appreciated within First Nations as well as Euro-American cultures. Just as both Native canoes and foreign ships were the means of transportation for commodities, this woven container/commodity became the means for the circulation of boat imagery between cultures.


Click here for a discussion about this object (Ron Hamilton)

Tags for Interactive Tag Cloud: ship imagery, souvenir