The Frank Stella Navajo (Diné) Textile Collection

Exhibition

The Frank Stella Navajo (Diné)
Textile Collection

Frank Stellla’s Personal Collection of Navajo (Diné) Blankets and Rugs

New York, May 15–June 10, 2026 | Dublin, New Hampshire, June 20–July 30, 2026

Foreward

Peter Pap Rugs presented 48 Navajo (Diné) blankets and rugs from the personal collection of Frank Stella. The collection was shown publicly for the first time. Collected over decades, the textiles reflect Stella’s enduring attraction to bold color, graphic pattern, strong geometry, and visual intensity.

Created by Diné women in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the works represent a period of remarkable innovation in Navajo weaving. Through experimentation with scale, optical effects, and expanded color palettes, these weavers pushed longstanding traditions in new and highly individual directions.

Several textiles entered Stella’s collection through artist Tony Berlant, and one blanket appeared in the landmark 1972 touring exhibition The Navajo Blanket, organized with LACMA curator Mary Kahlenberg, which later traveled to the Brooklyn Museum.

Accompanied by new scholarship from Dr. Jill Ahlberg Yohe, the exhibition considers Stella as a collector while focusing on the authorship, technical sophistication, and artistic achievements of the Diné women whose work he admired.

Frank Stella (1936–2024) was one of the defining figures of postwar American abstraction. Born in Malden, Massachusetts, he studied at Phillips Academy and Princeton University before moving to New York in the late 1950s, where his groundbreaking Black Paintings helped establish a new direction for contemporary art and anticipated the rise of Minimalism.

Over a career spanning more than six decades, Stella continually expanded the possibilities of painting, sculpture, and printmaking through an exploration of color, geometry, structure, and pictorial space. Working in series, he moved from shaped canvases and geometric abstraction to increasingly ambitious reliefs, constructions, and monumental public sculpture. His work has been the subject of major museum exhibitions worldwide, including a retrospective organized by the Whitney Museum of American Art in 2015, and in 2009 he received the National Medal of Arts.

Alongside his artistic practice, Stella assembled a personal collection of Navajo textiles over several decades, drawn to their visual power, technical sophistication, and bold formal presence.

Essay

By Dr. Jill Ahlberg Yohe PhD., Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art, Cafesjian Art Trust Museum

The Diné textiles in the Stella Collection represent a breakthrough moment in Navajo weaving art history. Made in the last quarter of the 19th and very early 20th centuries, the textiles in the collection demonstrate an era of individual artistic freedom and creative innovation. Weavers of this era created textiles with novel design combinations, bold new colors, and illusionistic play, and the varieties of individuality. This originality has confounded Navajo weaving scholars for more than a century. Diné textile scholarship –built in anthropology rather than in art history— looks for cultural generalization and material-based technique over creative impulse. The more unusual and individualistic a textile is, the less attention it gets paid. This era and those in Stella’s collection defy established categories and analysis, leaving them outside of the reach of canonical scholarship and further depriving them of their rightful place in art history and in important collections.

Rio Grande Banded Textile, c.1900

Wool and dye (synthetic); 3’9″ x 6’7″

This simple yet elegant textile incorporates pink yarn, a fashionable color in the late 19th century. Weavers enjoyed creating unusual color combinations in their textiles, however traders discouraged experimentation with non-“traditional” color palettes, preferring to establish consistent types of textiles they found to be more “authentic.”

Post-Classic style textile, c.1885

Wool and dye (synthetic), 4’2″ x 7’3″

The all-over composition of this textile resembles Frank Stella’s edge-to-edge and large stripe paintings. While Stella acquired this textile nearly a decade after helping develop a new style of painting in the 1960s, he may have admired this textile in relation to his own work: bold and confident color choices and geometrically proportionate half-chevron designs covering the entire design field. Notice the weaver’s deliberate decision to outline only two of the half-chevron designs in blue, while using white yarn for all other outlines. This balances and grounds the top and bottom of the textile together.

Late Eyedazzler Variant Textile, c. 1885

Wool and dye (natural and synthetic); 4’2″ x 6’4″

The Diné (Navajo) weaver who created this textile combines understated elegance and detailed elaboration. Using a Classic Period-style crimson red yarn base, she incorporates natural grey, black, and white wool into delicate, overlapping multihued shapes. The effect makes the thin lined designs dance on top of the stable red surface, creating subtle dimensionality and light optical movement.

Textile, c.1900

Wool and dye (natural and synthetic); 4’10” x 6’7″

The weaver combines a traditional Diné graphic pattern, then flips colors in perfect symmetry to create optical play. The multi-colored border, with thin stripes of color, halts the moving opticality of the illusory plane in the central design.

Geometric textile, c.1895

Wool and dye (natural and synthetic); 3’8″ x 5’4″

This textile is a classic example of late 19th and early 20th century weaving: graphic and bold compositions across the entire design field. The design is geometric, evenly spaced, and confident.

Most of the textiles in the Stella Collection are categorized as Transitional Period/Era weavings; term rarely defined and extraordinarily loose, Transitional Era weavings were created between approximately 1885 to 1910, defined by time period rather than style. They are also classified in terms of what they are not: they are not textiles created during the Classic Period (1800-1885) nor of the early 20th century Trading Post/Rug era. The thin scholarship didn’t dissuade artists like Frank Stella and other artists from collecting them; as artists, they intuitively understood their innovative and creative nature and value.

Navajo textile collections found in major art museums and private collections are largely works of art from an earlier era, the Classic Period (1800-1885). Characteristics of this time period include tightly woven blankets mostly for wear and intertribal trade, most notably Hanoolchaadi (Chief Blankets), waterproof blankets made for high-ranking peoples of the Plains. Hanoolchaadi features alternating wide horizontal bands across the entire compositional plane. They are made from naturally processed white and brown/black wool yarn, and weavers incorporate smaller indigo-dyed blue lines. Later phases of Hanoolchaadi include cochineal or lac crimson red yarn imported from Europe, in small blocks or in more elaborated diamond-shaped designs. Textiles of the Classic Period are widely admired and considered the most elegant and valuable of all Navajo weavings, praised for their understated simplicity and graceful restraint. By the 1860s, serapes with various embellishments, including serrated steppe designs, elaborated triangles, zig-zags, and horizontal and vertical lines took hold. These stylistic inventions of the Classic Period became further developed in the forthcoming years.

Post-Classic Banded Textile, c.1900

Wool and dye (natural and synthetic); 4’0″ x 5’2″

This well-loved textile exemplifies Diné weavers who explored color theory. Bands of bright orange, red, and yellow yarns stretch across the compositional frame, and the weaver grounds her experimental color combinations: the brown/black stripes set the boisterous colors in place.

Post-Classic Banded Textile, c.1900

Wool and dye (natural and synthetic); 4’0″ x 5’2″

While Stella acquired Diné textiles of the Post Classic/ Transitional era, an earlier generation of European and American painters were attracted to those of Classic Period, who associated these textiles as more “authentic” and imbued with spiritual essences and primordial artistic truths. Surrealist artists like Max Ernst and Dorothea Tanning collected Native American art of the Southwest, and many leading Abstract Expressionists – including Jackson Pollock – drew inspiration from the iconography and spiritualism they found evident in Diné arts and practices.

Late Elaborated Serape/Eyedazzler/Germantown Variant Textile, c.1885

Wool and dye (Germantown and synthetic); 5’1″ x 6’5″

This textile has presence. Large horizontal and angular bands of bold, colorful yarn create inner diamond vertical shapes evenly placed in the design field. Each band and shape is outlined by an orange/red serrated edge, creating tension and action while simultaneously bringing each design element into a harmonious whole.

Post-Classic Textile c.1885

Wool and dye (natural and synthetic); 2’9″ x 4’4″

Serrated diamonds and cross designs were key design elements in the Classic Period of Diné weaving (1800-1880), and weavers of later periods often drew upon these designs to anchor new elements in their creations. The weaver of this textile grounds her overall composition in large cross and diamond designs, then adds thinner horizontal lines of alternating colors in a braided design. Crosses in Navajo textiles predate Christianity’s arrival in Navajo country. Some scholars and weavers have suggested the crosses might symbolize Spiderwoman, the holy being who brought Diné weaving into existence.

Those who are familiar with Stella’s art might immediately sense why he acquired the kinds of Navajo textiles seen here. Many of the textiles in the collection incorporate Stella’s preferences for horizontal bands that stretch across the entire compositional surface. Much like Stella’s signature 1960s monumental scale stripe paintings, the banded textiles convey minimalist sensibilities and foreground attention to color theory and line. Other Diné weavings in the collection combine horizontal lines and/or squared step designs, highlighting clean geometries in the context of a flat compositional surface. In many of the color-banded and square-step designed textiles, the undyed white woolen yarn acts in similar fashion to a primed white canvas. White negative space pulls the geometric forms to the weaving surface, while simultaneously creating balance, harmony, and order.

Adolph Gottleib and Barnett Newman attributed many of their artistic breakthroughs in relation to Navajo textiles and Native American art as examples of “primitive” human consciousness or inner pan-human psychological states.

In contrast to artists of earlier generations, Stella and other Minimalists (and later, Color Field painters) were attracted to surface-level designs and the more formal elements within Navajo textiles. These artists most likely grasped Navajo weavers’ confident geometries, color theories, and the individualities of the artists evident in each textile. Frank Stella seemed most interested in elements of textile’s composition, as they resonated with core principles in his art: edge-to-edge color paintings, graphic striped canvases, and geometric resolution.

Banded Textile, c. 1900

Wool and dye (natural and synthetic); 4’7″ x 5’4″

Banded textiles, with browns as the base color, often served as saddle blankets. While the weaver experiments with optical movement by incorporating alternate facing designs, the textile does not create dynamic energy. For saddle blankets placed on horses, this kind of movement would be unnecessary.

Banded Textile, c. 1900

Wool and dye (natural and synthetic); 3’7″ x 6’5″

Diné weavers created banded-style blankets for use, trade, or sale, and they continue to create them today. Natural grey, white, and brown color designs can be read visually as half-chevron bands separated by a line, creating a “feather” design. They also appear as individual slanted rhombus designs. Different shades of red yarns are incorporated throughout the textile, resulting in waves of shading rather than easily noticeable blocks of different red yarns.

Post-Classic Banded Textile, c.1900

Wool and dye (natural and synthetic); 2’7″ x 4’6″

This unique textile has a design within it that you might not notice. The weaver incorporates chevron and diagonal block designs using the same creamy white yarn she uses for the background. She also places brown yarns at the tips of the chevron designs, creating an additional design element, resembling thin hatched lines stretching across the compositional plane. You can visually read the textile design in two completely different ways, like an optical exercise or a Rorschach Test.

You may also take notice of Navajo textiles that have a similar boldness of color found throughout Stella’s artistic career. Textiles in the collection reveal weavers who are fascinated by unimaginable color combinations. As a broad spectrum of new aniline dyes poured into the Southwest in the late 1800s, weavers innovated with new colored yarns in extraordinary fashion, learning novel complementary and contrast color combinations in their textiles.

Twill saddle blanket, c.1900

Wool and dye (synthetic); 2’1″ x 4’7″

Twilled saddle blankets are both soft and durable. Saddle blankets needed to endure hard wear and the weight of the rider and saddle. The weaver of this saddle blanket combines active designed bands with more restful ones. Larger bands of red woolen yarn feature alternating purple outlined squares or horizontal chevron designs. These more elaborate banded designs are complemented by the calm unembellished bands, made with red and white yarn twilled together.

Late Classic or Post-Classic Textile, c.1880

Wool and dye (natural and synthetic); 4’0″ x 4’6″

This beautiful textile has personality. The weaver likely learned to weave during the Classic Period (c.1800-1880), when weavers produced exceptionally balanced and tightly woven textiles. The weaver incorporated alternating square block designs, expanding a simple banded textile into a modernist work. The weaver adds her own personality to the textile design by creatively placing blue indigo yarn in two grey/white squares at the upper corner.

Post-Classic Geometric Textile, c.1895

Wool and dye (synthetic); 4’2″ x 5’3″

While some of the colors in this textile have likely faded due to fugitive synthetic dyes, the overall composition remains strong. This textile design is unusual; Diné weavers typically balance their design fields with areas of calm and rest. The square block designs that fill the entire textile create tension without release, a quality not often seen in Navajo weaving.

By the late 19th century, Navajo weavers had developed one of the most significant contributions to American art history: Germantown style blankets and Eyedazzler textiles. Unlike any other art of its time, Diné weavers had found a way to create energetic movement and optical illusion within abstract designs. Vibrant colors of yarn from Germantown, Pennsylvania woolen mills entered Navajo territory in the 1860s and by the 1870s weavers were creating eye-dazzling textiles with mesmerizing energy and active design fields.

Classic/Post Classic Textile, c.1880

Wool and dye (indigo and synthetic); 2’8″ x 4’1″

One of the oldest textiles in the Stella Collection, this weaving incorporates signature Classic Period designs found in many late Hanoolchaadi (Chief Blankets): wide unembellished white bands, red bands with alternating blue and white ticking designs, and outlined steppe patterns. Stately and confident, the overall composition is simple yet grand.

Textile, c. 1880-1890

Wool and dye (synthetic);4’7″ x 8’0″

The weaver incorporates active red zigzag designs commonly found in wedge weave textiles of an earlier era. By placing these muscular zigzags in bands within a backdrop of natural white wool yarn, the weaver balances fields of energetic action with stated calm.

Post-Classic Banded Textile, c 1900

Wood and dye (synthetic); 4’0″ x 5’10”

This simple banded blanket was likely made by an emerging weaver. Navajo weavers learn to weave experientially and by watching others weave. Beginning weavers often make textiles unevenly: their weavings often start wide at the bottom and gradually become less wide at the top.

Magnetic zig-zags, and pulsing serrated and outlined triangles, diamonds, and stepped vertical and diagonal lines of endless variations appeared, offering weavers a well-spring for creativity and innovation. The Stella Collection has many examples of this artistic movement, including two creatively colorful and designed serape-style eyedazzlers, an extraordinary Germantown-style eyedazzler, a Classic-style zig-zag eyedazzler, a uniquely strong optical designed textile and many others that fall into this optically energetic style.

Germantown Textile, c. 1885

Wool and dye (Germantown and synthetic); 3’0″ x 4’3″

By the second quarter of the 19th century vibrantly dyed woolen yarn manufactured in Germantown, Pennsylvania poured into the American Southwest, ushering an explosion of creativity in Diné weaving. The expanded color palette allowed weavers unbridled experimentation in color to further activate and expand conventional design fields. The weaver of this textile incorporates complementary colors to energize individual designs while simultaneously maintaining a grounded and cohesive composition. She also creates optical effects of three dimensions in a two-dimensional plane: the lined hatchings of the outermost triangles and the tension of complementary colors turn triangles into three-dimensional squares.

Germantown Textile, c. 1885

Wool and dye (Germantown and synthetic)

4’7″ x 7’3″

Certainly one of the most unique textiles in the Stella Collection, this Germantown-style weaving includes design elements from the Classic Period (1800-1880), Eyedazzler movement, and individualistic creativity. The outer portion of the textile features Classic-era design composition: crosses within fields of crimson red yarns. The middle design field displays hallmark designs in Eyedazzlers: large geometric and multi-banded criss-crosses with serrated edges, creating energy and movement. The center’s pink and purple diamond design reveals the work of a weaver confidently experimenting with color combinations, creating an original and unique work of art.

About Jill Alhberg Yohe, PhD:

Alhberg Yohe has more than a decade of experience creating innovative exhibitions, scholarship, and programming as an independent consultant and museum curator. She earned her PhD from the University of New Mexico and served for many years at the Minneapolis Institute of Art as the associate curator of Native American Art, during which time she organized notable exhibitions including “Hearts of our People” and “In Our Hands.”

The Rest of the Collection

Panel Discussion Dublin, NH | July 12, 2026

On July 12, 2026, we welcomed an audience to our Dublin, New Hampshire gallery for a panel exploring the cultural and artistic significance of Navajo (Diné) weavers, their impact on generations of artists, including Frank Stella, and the ways museums, scholars, and collectors continue to interpret and present their work. The program brought together exhibition curator Jill Ahlberg Yohe, Ph.D., Jami Powell, Ann Lane Hedlund, Ph.D., and artist Beryl Korot for a wide-ranging conversation on Navajo weaving, Indigenous art, and the enduring influence of these textile traditions. Following the discussion, the panelists, alongside Peter Pap, led guests through the gallery for a closer look at the Stella textiles on view, offering additional context and commentary on individual pieces throughout the exhibition.