Current Exhibitions
Turquoise, Water, Sky: The Stone and Its Meaning
April 13, 2014 through May 30, 2016
Turquoise, Water, Sky: The Stone and Its Meaning highlights the Museum’s extensive collection of Southwestern turquoise jewelry and presents all aspects of the stone, from geology, mining and history, to questions of authenticity and value.
People in the Southwest have used turquoise for jewelry and ceremonial purposes and traded valuable stones both within and outside the region for over a thousand years. Turquoise, Water, Sky presents hundreds of necklaces, bracelets, belts, rings, earrings, silver boxes and other objects illustrating how the stone was used and its deep significance to the people of the region. This comprehensive consideration of the stone runs through May 2, 2016.
View the online version of the exhibition at http://turquoise.indianartsandculture.org
Concho Belt
A concho belt is both functional and ornamental, made of leather with round or oval silver decorations embellished with turquoise and sometimes coral. The belt’s name derives from the Spanish word conchas (shells, referring to the silver belt decorations). Traditionally these belts are made by the Zuni and the Diné (Navajo).
Ketoh (Bow Guard)
Ketohs, or bow guards, were traditionally worn to protect an archer’s arm from the sting of a released bowstring; today, they are worn as decoration. This ketoh (circa 1912) pairs two glass cabochons with one of real turquoise. So-called Hubbell glass was imported into the region during a period when turquoise was difficult to acquire. Artists used it because it had the right color, but tourists rejected it as “fake.” (Courtesy of the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture/Laboratory of Anthropology. Photograph by Kitty Leaken.)
Large single cabochons and clusters of smaller stones on bracelets and rings
Large single cabochons and clusters of smaller but precisely cut stone ornament Southwestern bracelets and rings. These pieces of jewelry date from the 1910s to the present and show turquoise at its best. (Courtesy of the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture/Laboratory of Anthropology. Photograph by Kitty Leaken.)
Native, Spanish, and Moorish Influences
The squash blossom necklace is an iconic symbol of the Southwest, but the crescent and flowers began as Moorish symbols that were brought to the region by Spanish explorers and settlers. Navajo jewelers adopted the crescent, which they called a naja , and flowers (now squash blossoms instead of pomegranate flowers) and used them on necklaces. This necklace (Cat # 56966/12, 15” by 10.5”) is Navajo in origin. One ketoh, or bow guard, is Navajo (Cat # 10687/12), while the other was made by Santo Domino Pueblo artist Luther Aguilar in 1952 (Cat # 36139/12). Both are about four inches long and made of silver, turquoise, and leather. The rings are Navajo (Cat # 36078/12, made by Tom Morris, and 10514/12) and made of turquoise and silver.
