A designer or artist deeply absorbed in a project in her home or workplace—decades or centuries ago—puts the finishing touches on her creation. Today, her work is on view in our galleries. Though her name has been lost to time, she is identified on the label next to her work as “Artist once known.”
“We’ve recently made a change in how we refer to unidentified artists on object labels in the galleries and in our records,” says Elaine Mehalakes, AAM’s Vice President of Curatorial Affairs. “Rather than saying ‘Artist unknown’ or ‘Maker unknown,’ we are now using ‘Artist once known.’ The difference may seem subtle; however, ‘Artist unknown’ suggests that an artist’s identity is unimportant and unrecoverable, whereas ‘Artist once known’ implies that a work was made by an individual who was respected and appreciated within their community, even if we can’t identify them today.”
The shift from “Artist unknown” to “Artist once known” began in 2022 with cultural institutions such as the Hood Museum in New Hampshire and the Hudson River Museum in New York adopting this new language to humanize the artist. The Allentown Art Museum is doing the same beginning with the current installation of works in our American galleries.
“Museums curators first began using the term ‘Artist once known’ to acknowledge Indigenous makers whose names had not been recorded,” continues Mehalakes. “This dearth of knowledge of Indigenous makers can be attributed to a lack of interest in acknowledging such makers by the dominant society and/or a lack of interest in acknowledging the objects they made as fine art. Some institutions are now using ‘Artist unrecorded’ in place of ‘Artist unknown,’ but I don’t think that language honors the unknown maker in the way that ‘Artist once known’ does. Approximately 20 percent of the objects in our collection—particularly textiles and decorative arts but also Renaissance paintings—will be affected by this change, which also acknowledges many female makers whose names we no longer know.”
Artist once known (American), Dress, ca. 1935, silk chiffon. Allentown Art Museum: Gift of the Ellie Laubner Collection, 2009. (2009.012.612 a, b)
An example is Dress, on display in our Trexler Gallery. The dress’s distinctive color is known as Nile green. The muted blue-green hue was developed by American dye companies during the 1920s and became hugely popular in the 1930s. The ability to produce exciting new colors like Nile green came out of the 1917 Trading with the Enemy Act. Under this wartime legislation, the U.S. confiscated German-owned patents, giving American firms access to the technology of the world’s top chemical suppliers. In less than a decade, American dye companies dominated the market.
Artist once known (Nakoda (Stoney/Assiniboine), Moccasins and Belt Pouch, 1885–1920, leather and glass beads, overlay stitch, and Sioux general lane stitched. Allentown Art Museum: Gift of Wendy Ellsworth, 2017. (2017.24.19 and 27 a,b)
Moccasins and Belt Pouch are on view in Butz Gallery. Before the introduction of glass beads in the early 1800s, the Nakoda created decoration in quillwork, using flattened and dyed porcupine quills to create ornate floral and geometric patterns. By the 1890s, beadwork became a main source of income for Nakoda families, due to Euro-American disruption of traditional economies. On the moccasins seen here, the inverted mountains and circular key-hole symbols are early quillwork motifs that have been adapted to new beadwork techniques. The inclusion of ancestral symbols in these trade goods embodies Nakoda resilience and resistance in the face of colonial pressures.
The names of some artists may be lost to us, but the history, context, and impact of their works are not. By using “Artist once known,” we are acknowledging that all artists were once known.