Sovereign: Independent Voices

September 15, 2013 – August 16, 2015

Sovereign: Independent Voices highlights the work of three leading American Indian contemporary artists, Kent Monkman, Rose Simpson, and Virgil Ortiz, who have received international acclaim. These artists challenge people to think more broadly about the place of native artists in the contemporary art world through a fusion of historic techniques with contemporary styles and ideas. The included works reflect meditations on the self and native histories in a variety of media, including painting, sculptural ceramics, and multimedia works. Organized and curated by the DAM's associate curator of native arts, John Lukavic, this exhibit is on view in the Mike and Suzy Leprino Gallery.

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Hamilton Building, Level 3
Included in general admission
Kent Monkman, whose work is featured in Sovereign: Independent Voices, riffs off paintings by Albert Bierstadt like this one.

Albert Bierstadt, Estes Park, Longs Peak, 1877. Lent by the Denver Public Library, Western History Division.

This image is included on page 11 of the Sovereign: Independent Voices brochure.

Cochiti and Tesuque Pueblo figurines for sale, about 1878–81. Photo by Ben Wittick, courtesy Palace of the Governors Photo Archives (NMHM/DCA), 16293.

Thomas Eakins used the photograph at bottom, one of a series of posed studies featuring nude young men playing outdoor sports, to develop his painting The Swimming Hole. In a deliberate nod to Eakins, Kent Monkman arranges the figures in History is Painted by the Victors, at top, in a similar fashion. Note especially the figures at left in the painting.

Kent Monkman, History is Painted by the Victors, 2013. Photograph courtesy the artist. Thomas Eakins, photographer (American, 1844 - 1916). Eakins's Students at the The Swimming Hole, 1884, Albumen silver print. Image: 9.3 x 12.1 cm (3 11/16 x 4 13/16 in.) Mount: 10.8 x 16.5 cm (4 1/4 x 6 1/2 in.) The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles.