My cross-cultural biography moving back and forth from Germany to the US challenged me in the early 80s with the question, how to make sense and give meaning to such privileged complex experiences living in and at times between these distinct Western cultures.
“Multiculturalism” with all its socio-political implications, as well as the civic self-understanding of the actively engaged citizen constituting the strong, vibrant civil society in the US drew and occupied my focused attention for the years to come.
The arts – well, I cannot imagine life without their emotional, spiritual, intellectual inspiration and enlightenment.

My interest in a serious commitment for contemporary Native American art was triggered by a lecture given by the artist Jaune Quick-to See Smith in 1983 at the South West Museum in Los Angeles. Yet, it took me four more years of seeing and learning to feel ready for the complex issues of contemporary native art, while also exploring the art historic context and significance from my own Western perspective. Both cultural sensibilities established my cross-cultural commitment for acquiring and bringing this art to my country.
Whatever reasons people may collect for, I was driven by an inner necessity, once I had connected the dots, linking individual artistic expressions to what I perceived in the 80s as one of the most complex phenomenon in modernist art movements and modern art history: Native American Modernism. ( Insights into the evolving postmodern component parts came much later )

It took me 25 years to give form to my seeing and perception by building the small Peiper-Riegraf collection highlighting Native American modernism and postmodernism.It was a commitment against all odds and in many ways it remains that way.

Since 2006 my advocacy for the art historic significance and ultimately broader acknowledgement of Native American art and artists took form in the opposite process;
De-accessioning by parting with works for the placement in museum collections in the USA and Germany.

Only virtually can I hold on to the now lost wholeness of the collection and share all the works via this web site.The web site will be a long work in progress – texts, links and more information will be added over time.

I hope for and invite comments, input and inquiries.

Dorothee Peiper-Riegraf, September 2010

The best of art speaks not just to particular races, creeds or communities but beyond them to all of us about the best and the worst in the human condition…..we must help to make the arts of civilizations – all of them – and the best arts of today – all of them – a part of each of our lives. Only then will Americans understand themselves and the nation.”
Frank Hodsell, former chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts
Excerpt from his article   “No, Color isn’t Put Ahead of Art”   New York Times, September. 9, 1988, page.26