In the decades after World War II, the number of trading posts among Navajo and Hopi Communities declined, many closing or converting to convenience stores. A fundamental shift to a cash economy, increased job opportunities, better education, paved roads, and pickup trucks, all brought a wider world to isolated communities. For artists, improved transportation opened more ways to interact directly with collectors, sell to urban markets, and brought collectors access to artists, without the trader intermediary. Just as twilight is gradual, so was the change. Change included honoring creative legacies, often of family, but moving on in exciting ways with new creative vision inspired by contemporary influences.
Twilight: Trading Posts and Creative Legacies primarily focuses on Navajo textiles, including the Heard Museum’s recent acquisition by Calvin Toney (Diné) and a pictorial textile depicting the exterior of a trading post by Florence Riggs (Diné). The exhibition also features other examples of art related to trading posts such as pottery, jewelry, and photography.
Featured artwork (right): Calvin Toney (Diné), Dragonfly Dawn and Dusk, 2023. Wool, aniline dye, 53 1/2 x 80 in. Gift of Susan Esco Chandler and Alfred D. Chandler.
“Twilight presents artists as creators who with the passage of time assumed control of the presentation of their artistic vision to an ever-growing audience…
It is about artists surmounting the difficulties of isolation and travel through a beautiful land…
It is about conquering anonymity…
It is about finding a way to honor and continue important aspects of culture while creating a synthesis that incorporates contemporary times and a shifted economy.”
— Dr. Ann Marshall, Heard Museum Director of Research
Featured artwork (left): Florence Riggs (Diné), Trading Post (pictorial textile), 2015. Commercial yarn, aniline dye, 33 x 31 in. Heard Museum purchase in honor of Bruce McGee.
Featured image (top): Posed photo of recently purchased and traded items with cash at Salina Springs Trading Post located on the Navajo Nation in Apache County, Arizona, June 1986.
Photographer: Jerry Jacka.
Our sponsors
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This exhibition is made possible thanks to support from:
Image Gallery
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Exterior of Keams Canyon Shopping Center and Trading Post in Keams Canyon, Arizona, August 1988. Photographer: Jerry Jacka. -
People shopping at Salina Springs Trading Post on the Navajo Nation in Apache County, Arizona, June 1986. Photographer: Jerry Jacka. -
Exterior of Tuba City Trading Post in Tuba City, Arizona, c. 1970. Photographer: Brownell McGrew. -
Mary Nez (left) checks out with Irene Boloz (right) at Hubbell Trading Post in Ganado, Arizona, November 1995. Photographer: Jerry Jacka. -
Fourth generation Trader, Gene Wheeler, managed the Round Rock Trading Post on the Navajo Nation in Apache County, Arizona, June 1986. Photographer: Jerry Jacka.