“A Beauty That Endures”: over 50 rare paintings by Indigenous artists open the new exhibition in Palm Springs

On Saturday, October 3, 2026, the Agua Caliente Cultural Museum in Palm Springs, California, opened the new exhibition “A Beauty That Endures: Native Painting, Ritual, and Resilience in the 20th Century” — one of the rarest collections of 20th-century Indigenous painting, as the newspaper Palm Springs Desert Sun reports. Over 50 paintings by artists from 16 tribal nations in the United States come to light, many of them for the first time for the public.

The exhibition, curated by Tony Abeyta (Diné/Navajo), covers the first half of the 20th century — a formative period in the history of Native American art. The works are on loan from the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art at the University of Oklahoma, where most of this artistic treasure has never been shown publicly before. The artists of that time transformed inherited traditions into a new visual language, amid federal assimilation policies, boarding schools, Christian missions, population displacement and military service in the Second World War — while remaining deeply rooted in the ceremonial, philosophical and aesthetic traditions of their peoples.

One detail makes this exhibition special for visitors too: some of the works depict sacred rituals, such as the wolf dance, the Southern Cheyenne Sun Dance and the Great-Medicine Lodge Ceremony, so photography and videos are not allowed inside the exhibition hall.

In the spotlight are artists from California, Oklahoma, Florida and the Southwest, among them Bonita Wa Wa Calachaw Nunez — born near the desert town of Valley Center in California and separated from her culture when she was adopted by a New York woman. Her expressive portraits of Indigenous women kept her connected to her heritage throughout her life.

The exhibition will remain open until Sunday, May 30, 2027, offering visitors a rare opportunity to see up close a foundational chapter of Indigenous American art.