Julie Magura/Johnson Museum

"Tewa Maiden" (1981), acrylic by Dan Namingha, Tewa/Hopi, born 1950. All works from the Collection of Karen and Malcolm Whyte, Class of '55.

Julie Magura/Johnson Museum

"Mystical Bird" (1940), watercolor by Awa Tsireh (a.k.a. Alfonso Roybal), San Ildefonso, 1895-1955.

A new exhibition of works by American Indian artists juxtaposes traditional motifs and contemporary concerns, and highlights the familial connections between generations of artists.

"Walk in Beauty: Discovering American Indian Art," on display at the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art through July 8, features more than 40 paintings, works on paper and sculptures dating from 1929 to 2001, all drawn from the collection of Malcolm Whyte '55 and Karen Whyte. Artists from across North America are represented, with most coming from Hopi, Navajo, Cochiti, Taos and other Southwestern tribal heritages.

Taking its title from a traditional Navajo prayer, the exhibition illustrates the spread of "traditional style" American Indian painting in the 1920s and 1930s by artists trained in Dorothy Dunn's studio at the American Indian School in Santa Fe, N.M. These works depict hunting scenes and other aspects of Indian ritual and tradition, and draw on stylistic motifs reproduced for centuries on textiles and pottery.

Several works by contemporary American Indian artists also reference traditional themes, but treat them in new ways and use new media. Such artists as Harry Fonseca and David Bradley use humor and satire to comment on Indians' place in society and to make important revisions to American history. In many cases, this new generation of artists has familial ties to older practitioners, and the exhibition underscores this artistic inheritance by pairing works by mother and daughter, father and son, uncle and nephew.

The museum will present two programs in conjunction with the exhibit:

• Delaware Indian artist and beadworker Joe Baker, curator of fine art at the Heard Museum of Native Cultures and Art in Phoenix, will give a lecture April 24 at 5:15 p.m., "Remix: New Modernities in a Post Indian World."
  
  "The arts and cultural practices of societies are a powerful force, holding within their expression an inherent potential for change," Baker says. "The arts can truly liberate the impulses within existing structures and bring new patterns into the world that support connection, engagement and sustainability."

• Johnson Museum curator Andrew Weislogel will give a free tour of the exhibition April 26 at noon as part of the museum's "Art for Lunch" series.

For more information, call 607 255-6464 or visit http://www.museum.cornell.edu.