Tawk of New Yawk
At New York Historical, Indigenous Art Reclaims the American Story
May 6, 2026
Written By Dan Marino
“Most museum exhibits ask you to look at history. “House Made of Dawn: Art by Native Americans 1880 to Now” asks you to reconsider who has been allowed to tell it. At New York Historical, the new exhibition brings together more than a century of Indigenous art in a collection that feels less like a retrospective and more like a correction.
I had the chance to attend the opening of the new art exhibit at New York Historical, “House Made of Dawn: Art by Native Americans 1880 to Now.” In celebration of America’s semiquincentennial (say that five times fast), New York’s first museum was gifted a collection of contemporary Indigenous art from the Chair of the museum, Dr. Agnes Hsu-Tang, and her husband, Oscar Tang. The exhibit features diverse media, including paintings, watercolors, sculptures, prints and drawings, photography, textiles, baskets, mixed media, ceramics, precious metal, and rare books. As I walked through the exhibit, I was aware that a little bit of history was being made that night.
The collection encompasses more than a century of Native American art, showcasing various styles and mediums. There were expressionistic pieces, pop art, and still photography, many styles familiar to any modern art exhibit. One piece I saw early in the evening that stood out was an impressionistic painting titled Green Grass of Home, painted by Earl Biss, a descendant of an Apsáalooke chief who was part of a group hired to perform tracking for General Custer. The painting shows the Indigenous group at Little Bighorn holding an American flag. The figures are painted hazily, as if they are trying to come into focus, perhaps in an attempt to be remembered. It turns out it was a popular piece among some of the other visitors as well, including Oscar Tang, who told me it was one of his favorites from the collection.”
