Saddle Blanket T he lack of respect received by American Indian art used to irritate me. I had a passion for the material, so I thought everyone else should be passionate too. It was only during the last couple of years that I realized how fortunate I was to be working and collecting in a field that gets scant institutional respect. Collecting art that everyone wants is, at best, an exercise in conformity. You may think that you're thinking for yourself, but your thoughts are really being produced by the crowd you're following.
Prices are high, selection is low and a sense of discovery is long gone.
Collecting art that nobody wants is just the opposite. Prices are low, selection is good and a sense of discovery is always with you. In the spring of 1989, I was working as the managing partner of a gallery in Santa Fe, New Mexico, that specialized in antique American Indian art, with an emphasis on nineteenth-century Navajo blankets. Business was very good. Sometimes we sold two or three five-figure blankets a day.