Native American Art to have Named Labels

Article here

Native American art, until now, had been labeled by tribal names rather than by individual artists. Curators had no interest in names, a good example stated in the article: George Gustav Heye, whose Native American art collection became an important part of the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of the American Indian, simply bought artwork based on date and tribal name rather than on the person behind the artwork.

Curators of the Native American art in the Denver Art Museum--the museum being written about in this article--have spent months researching names behind the artworks. An interesting story that's stated in the article says that Nancy Blomberg, curator of the Native American art, could not find the artist behind one watercolor piece they had in the museum until she flipped through a magazine. She had gone to tribes in Colorodo for help and noticed that other museums had paintings done by the same artist. She finally found the name when flipping through a Bonhams & Butterfields auction catalogue, which detailed the artist.

I find it interesting how long it took any museum to identify Native American art by name. I wonder if other museums will take the steps to try and identify the names behind their collections, and if maybe this process will extend towards African art.