The exhibition features a mural painting by Hopi artists Michael Kabotie and Delbridge Honanie displayed for the first time outside of Arizona and the Museum of Northern Arizona. The impressive work spans nearly five feet tall and forty-eight feet in length, with six distinct but interconnected panels. Journey of the Human Spirit narrates the history of the Hopi people, from the mythic emergence, through the arrival of Europeans, to the rebirth of Hopi traditions in the information age. The contemporary mural was inspired by figural wall paintings created prior to European contact. The mural will be complemented by ancient to contemporary objects from the DMA's collection, including an ancestral Sikyatki Polychrome bowl with flower design and a modern kachina (katsina) doll of Palhik Mana, among works by other contemporary Hopi artists.
The exhibition is organized by the Dallas Museum of Art
Images: Michael Kabotie and Delbridge Honanie, Journey of the Human Spirit – The Emergence (Panel 1), 2001, Acrylic on canvas, Courtesy of the Museum of Northern Arizona © Gene Balzer; Michael Kabotie and Delbridge Honanie, Journey of the Human Spirit, 2001, Acrylic on canvas, Courtesy of the Museum of Northern Arizona © Gene Balze; Chaco style female effigy, 1000–1200 C.E., New Mexico, ceramic, slip, and paint, Dallas Museum of Art, Foundation for the Arts Collection, anonymous gift, 1991.342.FA; Showlow Polychrome jar: butterfly motif, 1300–1400 C.E., Arizona, ceramic, slip, and paints, Dallas Museum of Art, Foundation for the Arts Collection, anonymous gift, 1991.402.FA; Michael Kabotie and Delbridge Honanie, Journey of the Human Spirit – Middle Place: The Rebirth (Panel 3), 2001, Acrylic on canvas, Courtesy of the Museum of Northern Arizona © Gene Balzer; Classic Mimbres Black-on-white bowl: turkeys consuming a centipede, 1000–1150 C.E., New Mexico, ceramic, slip, and paint, Dallas Museum of Art, Foundation for the Arts Collection, anonymous gift, 1988.99.FA; Small canteen, Aas-Ku-Mana (Gwen Setalla), Hopi, American, born 1964, ceramic and paints, Dallas Museum of Art, gift of Dr. and Mrs. Robert I. Kramer, 2014.43.10