Image: Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art, Indianapolis
The Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art in Indianapolis has used a new acquisition fund created through the estate of longtime supporter Ellen Reed to purchase a Dale Chihuly glass sculpture and a painting by Kent Monkman. The museum said the fund, established with Reed’s $3.74 million bequest, is intended to support significant additions to the collection, with early purchases including Chihuly’s 'Fire Orange Basket Set' and Monkman’s 'The Three Graces'.
In the museum’s release, Eiteljorg leaders said the Reed gift has opened a more flexible path for collecting major works aligned with the institution’s mission. The museum said Reed, who was a member for 35 years and a volunteer for 18 years, directed part of her estate to an endowed acquisition fund and specifically wanted the museum to acquire a Chihuly work. The fund will also support future purchases for the museum’s Native and Western art collections.
'Fire Orange Basket Set' is a blown-glass work made in 2013. The Eiteljorg said the piece will go on view this fall. The museum’s description notes that Chihuly is best known for glass sculptures and large-scale architectural installations, and says the work reflects his revisiting of Basket forms ahead of a 2016 exhibition in Toronto. The museum said the making of the large vessels required rapid handling to prevent the glass from collapsing, contributing to increased transparency and more dynamic color.
The museum’s first purchase from the Reed fund was Kent Monkman’s 'The Three Graces', which it describes as a striking acrylic painting by the Canadian artist, identified in the release as ocekwi sipiy [Fisher River Cree Nation]. The museum said Monkman reinterprets Eurocentric art history through First Nations perspectives and through the lens of his identity as a Two-Spirit person. In the painting, the three classical figures become contemporary Indigenous women, a reworking the museum said represents women who may be mothers, aunties or friends.
Monkman’s painting was created in 2017 and is already on view in the Eiteljorg’s Native American Galleries exhibition, 'Expressions of Life: Native Art in North America'. The museum said it is displayed in the Innovation section alongside a photograph of Raphael’s 'The Three Graces', allowing visitors to see Monkman’s reinterpretation in direct dialogue with the Renaissance source.
The museum said the Reed fund will continue to support acquisitions of works by Native/First Nations artists and artists of the American West, including contemporary expressions that broaden the collection. It also said future Reed-supported purchases will be incorporated into a planned 2029 redesign and reinstallation of the Western art galleries. For the Eiteljorg, the new fund adds a substantial purchasing capacity to a collecting program that has traditionally relied on gifts and periodic direct acquisitions through its purchase awards and fellowship programs.
