The Sixth Antique American Indian Art Show in Santa Fe

Sammy Dalati Exhibitions

Opening night at the Antique American Indian Art Show in Santa Fe. Photograph by A. T. Willett.

At El Museo Cultural de Santa Fe, the sixth edition of the Antique American Indian Art Show is in full swing. Boasting some seventy dealers, most from the southwest, the fair brings together hundreds of historic and contemporary objects of Native American arts and crafts for a couple days in mid-August each year, to the delight of collectors and enthusiasts of the material. It’s accompanied by a slew of Native American–focused exhibits at local galleries and museums, and will be followed by the Santa Fe Indian Market, which focuses on contemporary Native American work and opens on Saturday.

Kachina dolls of c. 1920 being offered by Buffalo Barry’s Indian Art at the Antique American Indian Art Show. Photograph courtesy of Buffalo Barry’s Indian Art.

“The Super Bowl, Wimbledon—whatever you want to compare it to, that’s what this week is for Native American art in Santa Fe,” says Kim Martindale, who co-owns and produces the Antique American Indian Art Show with John Morris. Martindale helped found the first fair dedicated to historic Native American art—the Santa Fe Antique American Indian Art Show—when he was sixteen, and has been staging variations on the theme for forty-one years. “All my life, Native American artwork attracted me more than anything else, from when I was a little kid collecting arrowheads, to when I moved on to beadwork and textiles,” he says. By Martindale’s definition, historic Native American art is limited to material from before World War II, and approximately ninety percent of what’s on view at the show meets that criteria, ranging from the always charming Kachina (or Katsina) dolls carved by the Hopi and Zuni peoples; to knife sheaths, necklaces, and parfleches bedazzled with the colorful trade beads acquired by natives from European trappers and traders; to the massive, million-dollar woven basket being sold by Terry DeWald American Indian Art, nearly three feet across—what Martindale says is “probably the finest [Native American] basket in private hands.”

Basket being offered by Terry DeWald American Indian Art. Willett photograph.

Receiving top-billing this year is a suite of intaglio photogravures from Edward S. Curtis’s epic photo essay The North American Indian and jewelry by late Pueblo craftsman Julian Lovato—the subject of a special exhibition called Tradition and Innovation, the Legacy of Julian Lovato—who died last year at the age of 93.

Jewelry by master metalsmith Julian Lovato (1922–2018) of the Santo Domingo Pueblo, on offer at Four Winds Gallery. Photograph courtesy of Evan Sanders | Four Winds Gallery.

“The interesting thing about Native American material,” Martindale observes, “is that although people lump it all together, it was 540 groups of people making distinct things—textiles, baskets, pottery, etc.” Recently, “the industry has struggled a bit, but this year the response to the show has been very good,” he says. “High attendance, with people from all over the world looking to add to their collections.”

The Antique American Indian Art Show is open until August 16. antiqueindianartshow.com

Share: