Heard Museum
The Heard Museum in downtown Phoenix offers free admission on Saturdays during July, a sure way to bring a crowd. This unique museum dedicated to Native American art and culture currently has two special exhibits well worth a visit. “Allan Houser: Tradition to Abstraction” features the remarkable work of a great Native American artist. Allan Houser, born to Sam and Blossom Haozous in 1914 while they lived in Oklahoma, can claim mastery in two art forms, two dimensional painting and three dimensional sculpture. Houser’s 1970 oil on canvas, “When Meat Was Plentiful,” dramatically shows movement through the stylized buffalo chased by a rider on a galloping horse whose hoofs are turning up rocks, and with simple lines showing the sky and wind. Two years before his death in 1994, Houser received the National Medal of Arts by President George H. W. Bush.
“Hopi Katsina Dolls: 100 Years of Carving” guides us to an understanding of the Hopi carvers and their worldview expressed through this medium. Through this exhibit and a guided tour of the regular collection which included stops at the Goldwater-Kibbey Collection and the Fred Harvey Collection of katsinas, we learned that katsina dolls were gifts to Hopi infants and girls. Made from cottonwood roots, the dolls represented the Hopi spirit world. Some artists are capable of representing meticulous detailed clothing and jewelry that flies into the air and swirls around the body. During our tour we also learned about the Hopi wedding ceremony. In this matriarchal society the male relatives of the groom weave not only the wedding dress of the bride but also her funeral garment. There is much to be learned about this culture, but it was good to have this introduction. The Heard Museum deserves to be visited regularly.
A Battling Bishop 