Called SLAM’s first exhibition of contemporary and modern Native American art, the paintings, sculptures and textiles highlight post-World War II creations that likely are less-known than the much-hyped work from the New York scene.

“Action/Abstraction Redefined: Modern Native Art, 1940s-1970s” expands on SLAM’s 2008 exhibition on abstraction, says Alexander Brier Marr, associate curator of Native American art. It will “help visitors to see our historic collection of Native American art in new ways.”

The 80-plus-piece exhibition happens to complement other current exhibitions that highlight contemporary Native American pieces: the Luminary’s “Counterpublic” and the Pulitzer Arts Foundation’s “Faye HeavyShield: Confluences.” Using the next few weeks to see all three will be a valuable experience for St. Louis art lovers. In addition, HeavyShield’s work is at SLAM’s Donald Danforth Jr. Gallery 322.

“This spring and summer, contemporary Native American art has been much more visible across St. Louis than any of the last seven years I’ve been here,” Marr says. He believes that St. Louis museums are responding to increasing national focus on contemporary Native works. Plus, he points out: “There is strong Indigenous history here.”

Yet, SLAM did not own a postwar Native painting until this year, when it purchased Fritz Scholder’s 1966 oil “New Mexico #45.” Filling that gap in the museum’s collection had been a priority, Marr says.

Other works by Scholder will be part of the exhibition organized by the Museum of Contemporary Native Arts at the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Artworks on display will include those by Lloyd Kiva New, Linda Lomahaftewa, Alfred Young Man, T.C. Cannon, Anita Fields, Christine Nofchissey McHorse and many others. The St. Louis museum adds a few dozen more works to the traveling exhibition.

A difference between the abstract work of Native American artists and New York painters such as Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning is that the Native artists sometimes refer to their tribes’ ancestral forms, Marr says. The abstractions may include traditional colors, geometric shapes or symbolic images.

Abstraction offered Native artists a way to experiment and also to connect their art to emerging movements. One of the featured artists, George Morrison (Chippewa), worked in New York, where he exhibited and was associated with avant-garde painters there.

Although he originally considered himself an abstract expressionist first, Morrison later started exploring his American Indian heritage. (Conversely, Pollock, who grew up in Arizona, is said to have been influenced by Native art he saw there while young; he also witnessed sand painting in 1941 at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, which is also believed to have been an influence.)

Marr expects that this new exhibition of Native American abstraction will surprise some visitors, while others may be more familiar with it. But even he was impressed by a Santa Fe show in 2008: “The depth of abstraction blew me away.”

What “Action/Abstraction Redefined: Modern Native Art, 1940s-1970s” • When June 23-Sept. 3; hours are 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesday-Thursday and Saturday-Sunday, 10 a.m.-9 p.m. Friday (closed Monday) • Where St. Louis Art Museum, 1 Fine Arts Drive, Forest Park • How much $12, $10 for seniors and students, $6 for children 6-12; free for children 5 and under, for members and to all on Fridays • More info slam.org