Water, Wind, Breath: Southwest Native Art in Community

San Ildefonso Pueblo, ca.1780. Storage jar, black-on-cream earthenware. Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia.

Water, Wind, Breath features historic pottery, textiles, and jewelry that Dr. Albert Barnes collected in Santa Fe and Taos, New Mexico, during the 1930s, alongside works by contemporary Native artists to highlight the connections between historic pieces and modern practices. The exhibition introduces art made by Pueblo and Diné (Navajo) peoples in the mountains, valleys, and mesas of present-day New Mexico and Arizona. In the Southwest, the practices of creating pottery, textiles, and jewelry hold underlying cultural values that sustain health and well-being. Through centuries of hardship and colonization, art has helped the people endure. This exhibition explores these histories while celebrating Po-wa-ha (water-wind-breath), a term used by the Tewa Pueblos to describe the flow of energy that animates all existence and the practices that nourish life.