Exhibition reveals a complex story between white settlers and the Indigenous peoples depicted in masterwork

Opening August 16, 2021, at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the exhibition Jules Tavernier and the Elem Pomo explores the intercultural exchange between American artist Jules Tavernier (1844–1889), born and trained in France, and the Indigenous Pomo community of Elem at Clear Lake in northern California. Investigating Tavernier’s life and career, the exhibition is centered on his rediscovered masterwork, Dance in a Subterranean Roundhouse at Clear Lake, California (1878), which depicts the mfom Xe, or “people dance,” of the Elem Pomo in an underground roundhouse. The exhibition brings together approximately 60 works by a range of artists—paintings, prints, watercolors, and photographs—to tell the story of Tavernier’s travels through Nebraska, Wyoming, California, and the

Opening August 16, 2021, at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the exhibition Jules Tavernier and the Elem Pomo explores the intercultural exchange between American artist Jules Tavernier (1844–1889), born and trained in France, and the Indigenous Pomo community of Elem at Clear Lake in northern California. Investigating Tavernier’s life and career, the exhibition is centered on his rediscovered masterwork, Dance in a Subterranean Roundhouse at Clear Lake, California (1878), which depicts the mfom Xe, or “people dance,” of the Elem Pomo in an underground roundhouse. The exhibition brings together approximately 60 works by a range of artists—paintings, prints, watercolors, and photographs—to tell the story of Tavernier’s travels through Nebraska, Wyoming, California, and the