Looking Back at the Cargill Exhibition

PRESENTS

THE SACRED LEGACY® OF EDWARD S. CURTIS AND THE

NORTH AMERICAN INDIAN

EDWARD CURTIS

“I like a man who attempts the impossible.” —J.P. Morgan

Edward Curtis was born in 1868 and grew up in abject poverty in rural Minnesota. He built his first camera at age twelve and thus unwittingly embarked on his lifelong photographic career. In 1887, Curtis moved to the Pacific Northwest where he quick-ly positioned himself as Seattle’s foremost studio photographer. This success gave him the freedom to pursue his love of the great outdoors and this activity brought him into contact with small groups of Native Americans who were still living some-what traditional lives.

These experiences led Curtis to begin, by 1900, an undertaking that would consume him for the next thirty years. This project was the creation of his magnum opus, The North American Indian, a twenty volume, twenty-portfolio set of handmade books. Each Set contains over 2,200 original photographs, plus extensive text, and transcriptions of language and music. It is difficult to overestimate the enormity of Curtis’s task. The proj-ect involved over one hundred artisans, translators, sales staff, logistical support, field assistants, accountants, etc. In today’s dollars it was an approximately $35,000,000 publishing project, unparalleled in American publishing history.

While The North American Indian is an inestimable contribu-tion to the worlds of art, photography, ethnography, and fine bookmaking, the project nearly killed Curtis. He lost his family, his money, and his health. By 1930 he was a broken man. While he lived out the rest of his life in obscurity, he left us with a sacred legacy that may endure for many centuries to come.

SACRED LEGACY

Over one hundred years ago, the American photographer Ed-ward Sherriff Curtis set out on a monumental quest to make an unprecedented, comprehensive record of the North American Indian. During a thirty-year period he produced 40,000-50,000 photographs of Native People from over eighty different tribal groups. Curtis’ mission was to safeguard and preserve their ‘sacred legacy’ by creating a lasting record of their lives in pho-tographs, film, sound, and text. This was a highly collaborative process and the Native people were active co-creators in pre-serving this record for future generations. It is estimated that over 10,000 native people actively and generously contributed their time, experience and knowledge toward the creation of this Sacred Legacy®. Curtis was a witness and messenger as much as a co-creator. Today this work stands as a landmark in the history of photography, book publishing, ethnography, and the American West.

Viewed in its entirety, Curtis’ work presents an historical record of enormous importance. Edward S. Curtis and his Native co-creators not only preserved for future generations a crucial part of American history, but also provided a powerful opportunity to understand many aspects of the American Indian experience. Perhaps the most important legacy of Curtis’s monumental ac-complishment is the expression of an extraordinary and deeply felt empathy and understanding of the personal, emotional, and spiritual lives of the American Indian. The work’s core message is one of beauty, heart, and spirit. In these respects, this collab-orative body of work is unique and unparalleled.

Christopher Cardozo Fine Art (CCFA) has been the leading source for the artwork of Edward S. Curtis for over 35 years. During that time we have consistently maintained the world’s largest inventory of rare, vintage original Curtis photographs for sale. Cardozo Fine Art is also proud to have created the most extensive exhibition program of Curtis photography in history. It is estimated that CCFA/Curtis Exhibitions have been seen by more people around the world than all previous Curtis exhibitions combined. Through it’s books, exhibitions, lectures, and gallery CCFA has brought Curtis to well over 10 million people in 40 countries, across six continents.

Christopher Cardozo is widely acknowledged as the world’s leading expert in the work of Edward S. Curtis. Over the past thrity-nine years he has assembled the world’s most extensive collection of vintage original photographs by Edward S. Curtis. Cardozo is the author of eight monographs on Edward S. Curtis and has lectured on Curtis internationally for over thirty years.

For the past decade Cardozo Fine Art has also been passion-ately involved in the creation of contemporary original photo-graphs by Edward S. Curtis. Cardozo Fine Art has succeeded in creating an unprecedented body of contemporary original Curtis photographs, which have been exhibited and collected world-wide. Please visit our website for purchase information.

www.edwardcurtis.com

“It’s such a big dream, I can’t see it all.”—Edward S. Curtis

BEAUTY, HEART & SPIRIT

Edward S. Curtis Self-Portrait, 1899

Taos Water Girls, 1905

www.edwardcurtis.com

LOOKING BACK AT THE CARGILL GALLERY

EXHIBITION

The “Beauty, Heart and Spirit” Exhibition just closed after a two month run. We have been told that it was the most successful, the most popular and the most highly attended exhibition in the

history of the Gallery. We wanted to thank those who attended and share some imagery and

feedback from the show.

Cargill Gallery Installation

Comment from the Cargill Gallery Guestbook

Introductory Panel for “Beauty, Heart and Spirit” Exhibition




Display case of photographs made by Christopher Cardozo and objects collected in 1973, in a remote Mexican Indian Village. This experience led directly to Cardozo’s discovery of the work of Edward Curtis.







BEAUTY, HEART & SPIRITTHE SACRED LEGACY OF EDWARD S. CURTIS AND THE NORTH AMERICAN INDIAN

EDWARD CURTIS

“I like a man who attempts the impossible.” —J.P. Morgan

Edward Curtis was born in 1868 and grew up in abject poverty in rural Minnesota. He built his first camera at age twelve and thus unwittingly embarked on his lifelong photographic career. In 1887, Curtis moved to the Pacific Northwest where he quick-ly positioned himself as Seattle’s foremost studio photographer. This success gave him the freedom to pursue his love of the great outdoors and this activity brought him into contact with small groups of Native Americans who were still living some-what traditional lives.

These experiences led Curtis to begin, by 1900, an undertaking that would consume him for the next thirty years. This project was the creation of his magnum opus, The North American Indian, a twenty volume, twenty-portfolio set of handmade books. Each Set contains over 2,200 original photographs, plus extensive text, and transcriptions of language and music. It is difficult to overestimate the enormity of Curtis’s task. The proj-ect involved over one hundred artisans, translators, sales staff, logistical support, field assistants, accountants, etc. In today’s dollars it was an approximately $35,000,000 publishing project, unparalleled in American publishing history.

While The North American Indian is an inestimable contribu-tion to the worlds of art, photography, ethnography, and fine bookmaking, the project nearly killed Curtis. He lost his family, his money, and his health. By 1930 he was a broken man. While he lived out the rest of his life in obscurity, he left us with a sacred legacy that may endure for many centuries to come.

SACRED LEGACYThe purpose of this Exhibition is to honor and celebrate our Native peoples, their lives, their history, and their culture as well as the beauty and power of Edward Curtis’ photography. Over one hundred years ago, the American photographer Ed-ward Sherriff Curtis set out on a monumental quest to make an unprecedented, comprehensive record of the North American Indian. During a thirty-year period he produced 40,000-50,000 photographs of Native People from over eighty different tribal groups. Curtis’ mission was to safeguard and preserve their ‘sacred legacy’ by creating a lasting record of their lives in pho-tographs, film, sound, and text. This was a highly collaborative process and the Native people were active co-creators in pre-serving this record for future generations. Curtis was a witness and messenger as much as a co-creator. Today this work stands as a landmark in the history of photography, book publishing, ethnography, and the American West.

Viewed in its entirety, Curtis’ work presents an historical re-cord of enormous importance. Edward S. Curtis and his Native co-creators preserved for future generations an important era in American history and provided a powerful opportunity to understand many elements of the American Indian experience. Perhaps the most important legacy of Curtis’s monumental ac-complishment is the expression of an extraordinary and deeply felt empathy and understanding of the personal, emotional, and spiritual lives of the American Indian. The work’s core message is one of beauty, heart, and spirit. In these respects, this collab-orative body of work is unique and unparalleled.

“It’s such a big dream, I can’t see it all.”—Edward S. Curtis

This exhibition has been organized by the Foundation for the Exhibition of Photography (FEP), Minneapolis, in collaboration with Christopher Cardozo Fine Arts, the Minnesota Council of Regional Public Library Administrators (CRPLSA) and the Hennepin County Central Library in Minneapolis.

This project was funded in part or in whole with money from Minnesota’s Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund.

BEAUTY, HEART & SPIRIT

Edward S. Curtis Self-Portrait, 1899

A groundbreaking exhibition of Edward Curtis’ timeless and iconic images of Native Americans.

Minneapolis Central LibraryNovember 2nd, 2012 — January 6th, 2013

Exhibition Curators: Christopher Cardozo and Peter BernardyExhibition Coordinator: Luke Erickson

We particularly want to thank master printers Peter Bernardy and Brad Miller who created the vast majority of the prints for this exhibition. Their hard work and commitment to excellence can be readily seen in many of the extraordinary, groundbreaking prints in this exhibit.

Taos Water Girls, 1905

Edward S. Curtis in the field c. 1910

Looking Back at the Cargill Exhibition

Documents