The museum opened in 1989 with funding assistance
from Lilly Endowment Inc. Since that time, the Eiteljorg
Museum has served as the primary venue for Native American
art and culture in Indiana. It is also the only museum in
the Midwest to offer extensive collections of both Native
American and American Western art. This natural, yet surprising,
combination of artistic forms grew out of the unique vision
of Harrison Eiteljorg, the museum's founder. An Indianapolis
businessman, philanthropist and art collector, Eiteljorg
wanted the museum to capture the unusual aesthetic of the
West - in all its diversity - in this community just east
of the West. The West was, and perhaps in some ways still
is, a frontier, one that moved from New England across the
country with European settlement. The Midwest, after all,
was once the West, and Indiana and Indianapolis were named
after their first human inhabitants.
Art, in all its forms, was a longtime passion
for Harrison Eiteljorg (1903-1997), founder of the Eiteljorg
Museum of American Indians and Western Art. Eiteljorg first
went West in the late 1940s on coal mining ventures, and
subsequently developed a lifelong passion for the land, the
people, and the artwork there.
Eiteljorg acquired his enthusiasm for art at an early age,
in part from his mother, herself a talented artist. Eiteljorg
maintained that his inquisitive nature and avid interest in
the areas he visited had an influence on his collecting. Patricia
Janis Broder, a well-known authority on Western art, once
wrote that Eiteljorg "traveled thousands of miles to
attend exhibitions and competitions, to visit museums devoted
to Western art, and to patronize galleries specializing in
paintings and sculptures of the American West ... As a patron
he has given encouragement and financial support to several
young artists, enabling them to devote full time and attention
to their art."
Eiteljorg described his collection as a very personal one
that grew not only out of his interest in the West, but also
out of his love and respect for Native Americans and their
cultures, which reflect a deep regard for nature. This sense
of oneness with nature is embodied in the museum's extensive
collection of Native American art, including pottery, basketry,
clothing, bead and quill work, and weavings. Eiteljorg called
his collection not only personal, but romantic. "In these
paintings," he said, "there is very little evidence
of the violence which marked the settling of the West. But
the Indians and their culture, the cattle drives, wagon trains
and the other themes we associate with the Old West are represented."
The
association that Eiteljorg had with Taos, N.M., and the artists
who lived there, also had a significant influence on him and
his collection. Taos, with its mixture of Native American
and Hispanic cultures, plus the influx of artists in the first
half of the 20th century, has often been called the cultural
center of the Southwest. It was Eiteljorg's favorite "camping
ground." His exposure to the local culture and his friendships
with the Taos Society of Artists (the "Taos Ten")
and other artists, such as Nicholai Fechin and Leon Gaspard,
is reflected in the museum's collection, in which the art
of New Mexico is particularly strong.
Eiteljorg's desire to collect extended beyond Western and
Native American art. He amassed a sizable collection of paintings
from the Paris School, as well as an extensive African and
Oceanic collection, which is installed at the Indianapolis
Museum of Art. Eiteljorg played an active role in the affairs
of the museum that bears his name until his death in 1997.
He served as chairman of the board, visited the museum and
remained vitally interested in the museum's events, developments
and growth.
