Jackson Hole News&Guide, Wednesday, September 5, 2012  - 3F

Fighting Bear Antiques375 S. Cache St.

733-2669FightingBear.com

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By Katy Niner

For more than 30 years, Alan and Berte Hirschfieldhave lived amid their collection of AmericanIndian art.

A war shirt worn by a seasoned Sioux war-rior who fought in the Battle of Little Bighorn hangs in thebreakfast room. An exquisite beaded valise sits atop a tablein the great room.

 The art lives in arrangements as carefully curated as amuseum’s. Connections come to life between works. Asthey do in a new book, “Living with American Indian Art: The Hirschfield Collection,” which presents 160 works fromthe Jackson family’s collection, most of which have neverbefore been exhibited or published.

 —llehcniWyrre T,dlefihcsriH.JnalA,ogasraeyruoFowner of Fighting Bear Antiques and Hirschfield’s art advi-sor for more than a decade — and publisher Gibbs Smithset out to record the collection. The original concept for thebook changed in the intervening years, lengthened by therecession and the collaborators’ busy lives. It evolved into apersonal portrait of a man and the art he loves.

“Living with American Indian Art” is peppered withpersonal anecdotes, starting with the preface Hirschfieldpenned about his extraordinary career as an investmentbanker and entertainment executive at Columbia Picturesand 20th Century Fox, and continuing with the storieshe shares about specific pieces. Photographer W. GarthDowling not only honed in on the beauty and artistry of each piece within the collection but also captured the inte-rior aesthetic of the Hirschfields’ home.

For the book, every piece was vetted. Editor MarjorieAlexander cataloged the collection and edited the content.Gaylord Torrence, senior curator of American Indian art atthe Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, wrote the preface, lend-ing gravitas to the project. Winchell introduces each chap-ter with historic and cultural context.

Within weeks of its release, “Living with AmericanIndian Art” will be feted with a talk and book signing from10 a.m. to noon Saturday, Sept. 15, at Fighting Bear Antiques.

Wyoming College, adjacent to the Wind River Reservation.––––––––––––––––––––

Growing up in Oklahoma, Hirschfield was acquaintedwith American Indians and their art, but it wasn’t untilhe enrolled at the University of Oklahoma — home to theUniversity of Oklahoma Press, the leading publisher of books on American Indians — that he dove into their his-tory and culture.

A lifelong collector, Hirschfield was a philatelist as aboy and an aficionado of American contemporary paint-ings and Japanese baskets as an adult. His first piece of American Indian art was a contemporary katsina doll, agift from his parents to mark Alan and Berte’s first trip toSante Fe, N.M., in the late 1960s. Years later, his collectorinstinct took hold when his friend Charles Diker encour-aged him to buy an Apache basket.

While baskets initially lured him, beadwork ultimatelyenthralled him.

vision, guided by their own inclinations and preferencesand by a sustaining passion. The resulting collection is asuperbly remarkable achievement that reflects enormouscommitment. It stands among the greatest private collec-tions of Plains and Plateau Indian art in the world.”

––––––––––––––––––––For the cover image, the predictable pick would have

been a war shirt. Instead, Hirschfield chose a dress from theWarm Springs Reservation in north central Oregon, a deci-sion that speaks to his eye for beauty.

“This elaborate and exquisitely designed dress is oneof our most beautiful objects and one of the most visu-ally stunning American Indian works of art I have everencountered in any form,” Hirschfield writes in the book.

 The Hirschfield collection contains many remark-able works, including the valise by Nellie Gates, an artistfamous for he beadwork. One of four valises documentedin the Gates family papers, it was made for her daughter,Josephine Gates Kelly, an advocate for Indian rights andthe first female delegate to the Republican NationalConvention. Winchell purchased the piece from the family.

Also notable is the war shirt worn by Long Dog, doc-umented in a 1876 photograph found after Winchell soldthe piece to Hirschfield. “To buy a war shirt that is battle-worn by a major Sioux chief is incredible,” Winchell said.

In 2014, several pieces from the Hirschfield collec-tion will be featured in an exhibition of American Indianart, curated by Torrance and bound for the MetropolitanMuseum of Art and the Musee de Quai Branly in Paris.

––––––––––––––––––––When the Hirschfields began building their Wyoming

house, they discovered the site was once a Shoshone andGros Ventre summer campsite, fitting roots for a homealready designed after a hogan to exhibit objects repre-senting the original land dwellers’ way of life.

American Indian art anchors the Hirschfields’ home inmuch the same way as it did for early ranchers. For them,decorating their homes with American Indian artifacts andartwork spoke to their connection with Indian people andthe history of the region, to “a profound and shared sense of place,” Torrence writes.

Long ago, Hirschfield recognized his collection as art,not just American Indian art, Winchell said. He considersit the true American art form, unfettered by European influ-ences, and hopes the book will so educate a wide audience.

“It’s important that people beyond this small group of 

 Tome  as tribute

 This war shirt, made out of leather, porcupine quills, glass beads, wool and cotton cloth, human hair, horsehair and ermine,belonged to Sioux warrior Long Dog, who fought alongside Sitting Bull against Custer at the Battle of Little Bighorn.

“Living with American Indian Art” presents works fromthe collection of Jackson Hole’s Alan and Berte Hirschfield.

10 a.m. to noon Saturday, Sept. 15, at Fighting Bear Antiques.Hirschfield will discuss his collection, and select pieces willbe on display.

 The book costs $75, with proceeds benefitting theIntertribal Education and Community Center at Central

In the American Indian art market, “Hirschfield” hasbecome an adjective describing the personal aesthetic Alanand Berte Hirschfield have used to build their collection, Torrence says in the preface.

“The Hirschfields collect from an intensely personal

“It’s important that people beyond this small group of collectors… recognize that this is the real American art,”Hirschfield said. “One of the purposes of this book andcollection is to glorify the beauty and the artistic nature of these people as a counterpoint to all of the oppression.”