{{Short description|Native American art dealer}} {{Infobox writer <!-- for more information see :Template:Infobox writer/doc --> | name = Martha Hopkins Struever | image = Martha Hopkins Struever 2009 cropped.jpg | image_size = 260px | caption = At home in Santa Fe in 2008 | birth_date = {{birth date|1931|11|14}} | birth_place = Milan, Indiana | death_date = {{death date and age|2017|09|24|1931|11|14}}<ref name=Memoriam>{{cite news |title=Memories of Marti: In Memoriam |author=Robert Bauver |magazine=ATADA News |publisher=Antique Tribal Art Dealer Association |pages=8–9 |date=2017 |url=https://www.atada.org/s/Fall-2017-Final-144.pdf |access-date=January 27, 2018}}</ref> | death_place = Santa Fe, New Mexico | occupation = American Indian art dealer, scholar, and author | genre = Native American art history | movement = | influences = | influenced = | signature = | website = {{URL|http://marthastruever.com/}} }}
thumb|right |260px |Martha Lee Hopkins Lanman Struever in California in 1968
'''Martha Hopkins Struever''' (1931–2017) was an American Indian art dealer, author, and leading scholar on historic and contemporary Pueblo Indian pottery and Pueblo and Navajo Indian jewelry. In June 2015, a new gallery in the Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian, was named for her.<ref>{{cite magazine |title=The Jim and Lauris Phillips Center for the Study of Southwestern Jewelry |author=Jonathan Batkin |magazine=American Indian Art Magazine |pages=34–43 |volume=40 |number=5 |date=Summer 2015 }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Southwestern jewelry takes center stage at the Wheelwright |author=Michael Abatemarco |date=2015-06-05 |newspaper=Santa Fe New Mexican |url=http://www.santafenewmexican.com/pasatiempo/art/museum_shows/southwestern-jewelry-takes-center-stage-at-the-wheelwright/article_50b2b1c1-9463-5f1a-980d-78b01bfcf021.html |access-date=2015-06-07 }}</ref> The first permanent museum gallery devoted to Native American jewelry, the Martha Hopkins Struever Gallery, is part of the Center for the Study of Southwestern Jewelry.
==Early personal life and education== Struever was born in 1931 in Milan, Indiana, the only child of Lester Harper Hopkins, M.D. and Eva Montalie (Neill) Hopkins.<ref>{{cite book |title=The Lanman Family - The Descendants of Samuel Landman of Boston, Massachusetts, 1687 |url=https://archive.org/details/lanmanfamilydesc00ston |url-access=registration |author= Stone, Don Charles |page=[https://archive.org/details/lanmanfamilydesc00ston/page/n84 1]-100 |publisher= Don Charles Stone, Lancaster, Pennsylvania |year=1968}}</ref> She grew up in rural southeastern Indiana in Versailles. After obtaining her Bachelor of Science degree from Purdue University in Lafayette, Indiana in 1953, Struever attended the Tobé-Coburn School For Fashion Careers (now the Wood Tobé Coburn School) in New York City. On November 16, 1953, she married Richard Burnham Lanman Sr. of Hammond, Indiana with whom she had two sons: Richard Burnham Lanman, M.D. and Todd Hopkins Lanman, M.D. She was widowed when Richard Sr. died of leukemia on December 8, 1966.<ref>{{cite web |title=Hammond Times Obituaries |publisher=Hammond Times |url=http://www.hammond.lib.in.us/Obits/1966%20Obits%20-%20L.htm |access-date=2015-12-09 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304105257/http://www.hammond.lib.in.us/Obits/1966%20Obits%20-%20L.htm |archive-date=2016-03-04 }}</ref> Martha married Edgar Allen "Bud" Cusick in 1971 and divorced in 1988.
==Career== After being widowed, Struever began collecting and dealing in American Indian art. In 1971 she visited San Ildefonso Pueblo and purchased her first piece, a "gun metal sheen" pottery plate by Maria Montoya Martinez and her son Popovi Da.<ref name="GordonHerzog1988">{{cite book|author1=Beverly Gordon|author2=Melanie Herzog|author3=Elvehjem Museum of Art|title=American Indian Art: The Collecting Experience: Elvehjem Museum of Art, University of Wisconsin-Madison, May 7-July 3, 1988|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=u0Lizx8ZkHgC&pg=PA41|year=1988|publisher=Chazen Museum of Art|isbn=978-0-932900-18-0|pages=41–}}</ref> In 1976, she established the Indian Tree Gallery in Chicago, Illinois featuring historic and contemporary American Indian jewelry, pottery, Kachina dolls, weavings, and paintings.<ref>{{cite web |title=About Marti |url=http://www.marthastruever.com |access-date=2009-10-04}}</ref> In order to bring the best Southwestern Indian artists to her Chicago gallery, she visited the Pueblo and Navajo reservations (often alone) to begin what were to become lifelong relationships with such prominent artists such as Charles Loloma, the foremost American Indian jeweler, and Dextra Quotskuyva, the pre-eminent contemporary Hopi potter.<ref>{{cite book |title=Loloma: Beauty Is His Name |author= Struever, Martha Hopkins |pages=1–209 |publisher= Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian, Santa Fe, New Mexico |year=2005}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=Painted Perfection: The Pottery of Dextra Quotskuyva |author= Struever, Martha Hopkins |editor= Jonathan Batkin |pages=1–123 |publisher= Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian, Santa Fe, New Mexico |year=2001|url=https://wheelwright.org/product/painted-perfection/ |access-date=October 23, 2021 }}</ref> Martha helped many Indian artists gain exposure outside of Southwestern markets by sponsoring shows for them in Chicago. Martha hosted Maria Martinez at her Chicago gallery in 1977 - and arranged a special reception at the Chicago Art Institute for the then 90-year-old potter. In addition to prominent artists, a primary focus of Martha's career has been the identification and encouragement of talented new Indian potters and jewelers.<ref>{{cite book |isbn=978-0-89013-496-2 |title=Shared Images: The Innovative Jewelry of Gail Bird and Yazzie Johnson |author= Pardue, Diana F. |page=188 |publisher= Museum of New Mexico Press, Santa Fe, New Mexico |year=2007 }}</ref> Martha sponsored the first exhibitions of now-notable jewelers Gail Bird and Yazzie Johnson, Richard Chavez, Norbert Peshlaki, and Perry Shorty, as well as potters Dextra Quotskuyva, Steve Lucas and Les Namingha.<ref>{{cite book |isbn=978-1-4236-0190-6 |title=Contemporary Southwestern Jewelry |author= Diana F. Pardue with the Heard Museum |page=25 |publisher= Gibbs Smith, Layton, Utah |year=2007 }}</ref>
On November 12, 1988, Struever married noted archaeologist Stuart M. Struever and relocated to Santa Fe, New Mexico. By 2006, she was recognized as the "grande dame" of American Indian art dealers, and received the first Lifetime Achievement Award from the Antique Tribal Art Dealers Association "for contributions to the understanding and preservation of tribal art".<ref>{{cite journal|url=http://www.atada.org/ATADA_News2-07.html |author=Bauver, Robert |date=Spring 2007 |title=ATADA Lifetime Achievement Awards - Antique Tribal Arts Community Honors Its Own |journal=ATADA News |publisher=Antique Tribal Arts Dealers Association, Inc. |access-date=2009-10-04 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090718134436/http://atada.org/ATADA_News2-07.html |archive-date=2009-07-18 }}</ref>
Over the past thirty years, Struever conducted over sixty traveling art and archaeology seminars throughout Navajo and Pueblo lands. Her seminars were enriched by her relationships with the many Indian artists whose careers she has encouraged.<ref>{{cite journal |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1994-01-09-tr-9955-story.html |author=Silverman, Myrna W. |date=January 9, 1994 |title=Tours for the Thinking Person - Anatomy of a Southwest Tour |journal=Los Angeles Times | access-date=2009-10-04}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wu7J1wLL8qcC&q=fantasy+vacations+ocko |title=Fantasy Vacations: Holiday Escapes That Make Your Dreams Come True |author= Ocko, Stephanie |pages=36–37 |publisher= Kensington Publishing Corp. |location=New York |year=2003 |isbn=978-0-8065-2435-1 }}</ref>
Struever's philanthropic work included overseeing nine Indian Art Shows in Chicago, Washington, DC, and Denver, bringing 25 artists to each event, for the benefit of the nonprofit Crow Canyon Archaeological Center. Crow Canyon was founded by her husband, Stuart Struever.
She had two sons. She died on September 24, 2017.<ref name=Memoriam/><ref name=obit>{{cite news |title=Martha Lee Lanman Struever |newspaper=Chicago Tribune |date=February 15, 2018 |url=https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/chicagotribune/obituary.aspx?n=martha-lee-lanman-struever&pid=188186320 |access-date=February 18, 2018}}</ref> The Martha Struever Indian Art Collection is now hosted by the Turquoise and Tufa Gallery in Santa Fe, New Mexico.<ref>{{cite web |title=Turquoise and Tufa Gallery |author=Bonnie McClung |author2=Mindy McClung |url=https://turquoiseandtufa.com/pages/our-story |access-date=14 Nov 2018}}</ref>
==Publications and scholarly work== Struever published reference works, authoring the two books "Loloma: Beauty Is His Name" (Wheelwright Museum, 2006) and "Painted Perfection: The Pottery of Dextra Quotskuyva" (Wheelwright Museum, 2002), as well as museum catalogues entitled "Nampeyo: A Gift Remembered" (Kendall College, Mitchell Museum, 1984), "Hopi Art: A Century of Continuity and Change" (San Francisco Museum of Craft and Folk Art, 1987), and "Legends of Pueblo Pottery" (Wheelwright Museum, 1997). She has guest curated museum exhibitions in several cities.<ref>{{cite book |title=Old Traditions in New Pots: Silver Seed Pots from the Norman L. Sandfield Collection |author= Loscher, Tricia |pages=1–144 |publisher=Heart Museum |location=Phoenix, Arizona |isbn=978-0-934351-79-9|year=2007 }}</ref> As Struever's scholarly reputation has grown, she has become recognized as one of the foremost experts on the pottery of Nampeyo, the jewelry of Loloma and the works of other significant Southwestern Indian artists.<ref>{{cite journal |url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/roadshow/fts/louisville_200704A15.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080503160016/http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/roadshow/fts/louisville_200704A15.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=May 3, 2008 |author=Gaffney, Dennis |date=April 28, 2008 |title=Nampeyo: Grande Dame of Hopi Pottery |journal=Antiques Roadshow: Follow the Stories |publisher=Public Broadcasting System | access-date=2009-10-04}}</ref>
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== *[http://www.marthastruever.com Martha Hopkins Struever home page] *[http://www.mitchellmuseum.org/ Mitchell Museum of the American Indian] *[http://www.museumofnewmexico.org/index.php/ Museum of New Mexico] *[http://www.wheelwright.org// Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian] *[https://turquoiseandtufa.com/pages/our-story Turquoise and Tufa Gallery hosts the Martha Struever Collection]
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Struever, Martha Hopkins}} Category:1931 births Category:2017 deaths Category:American art dealers Category:American women art dealers Category:Purdue University alumni Category:People from Ripley County, Indiana Category:People from Versailles, Indiana