Co-sponsored with the American Studies Program

Philip Deloria
Harvard University 

“From a cardboard box to the Met”: that’s how the New York Times described the current Metropolitan Museum of Art exhibition Mary Sully: Native Modern, on display through early January 2025. In this talk, Sully’s grand-nephew Philip J. Deloria will describe the work of this transformative Dakota artist, which boldly mixes Great Plains women’s aesthetics, early twentieth-century modernist traditions, 1930s popular culture, and ethnographic anthropology into stunning and intelligent visual art. The newspaper was correct: Sully’s work has moved from complete obscurity to the galleries of major American museums, and Deloria will detail the process behind its surprising journey.

Lecture, followed by a reception from 6:30 - 7:15 pm.