Tag: Native American Art

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Write Around PAM: Rick Bartow

A vertical, rectangular, abstract painting of a bird, possibly an eagle, that takes up most of the frame. The head is painted with heavy brushstrokes in white, gold, pale pink and blue around human-like eyes. A large, black beak stretches horizontally into a grimace with reddish pigment at the corners. Under the beak is a large triangular area of blue brushwork. The body is rendered in a flat manner with paint layered, streaked, dripped and smudged creating horizontal and vertical lines in the paint. Towards the bottom, the body forks into two wing-like areas. Tan, brown, pink, gray and white make up the wing on the left, the right is primarily browns. A dark leg juts from the body of the bird to the right. The bird is shown in a mustard yellow background with visible brushwork. Areas like the upper left and right corners reveal underpainting in browns, greens and gray. The artist’s signature is at top right in blue.

Writing continues to be a powerful way to engage with, and be inspired by, visual art. This week, we invite you to spend some time with Quiet One by Rick Bartow and see what stories it evokes for you. Before or after you write, take some time to learn about Bartow’s life and art.⠀ We…  Read more

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Podcast: Auto Immune Response—Will Wilson’s Photographic Past, Present, and Future

Will Wilson is a trans-customary Diné artist whose work explores Native ideas of the future blended with the past. Though Wilson is mostly known as a photographer, his work also encompasses installation, mixed media, and digital media. Anyone following the Portland Art Museum for the past few years might also recognize Wilson from an exhibition…  Read more

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Daily Art Moment: Santee Sioux Artist

A pair of colorfully beaded, low-heeled ankle-high boot style shoes, pointing towards the right, seen in a three-quarter view against a gray background. Beige leather with beaded floral decoration on the toe box and both inner and outer sides of the shoes depicting leaves, flowers and abstract shapes in shades of blues, dark and light greens, burgundy, lilac and yellow almost cover the shoes. Beige laces thread through metal eyelets at front, the bright yellow lining is visible the length of the throat of the shoes. A seam is across the instep, they have brown soles and wooden, stacked heel. The toes of the shoes lift slightly from the smooth surface on which they are resting.

“I loved these joyful, beaded shoes the moment I saw them on exhibit in our Native American art galleries. I was immediately drawn to the colorful beadwork that integrated the bright yellow of the shoe’s lining and contrasted so brightly against the soft beige of the shoe’s leather. The elegant floral contour beadwork can be…  Read more

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Daily Art Moment: Cherokee Mask

Sculpture depicting a straight-on view of a dark brown, painted wooden face of a buffalo with a long snout. Carving marks are visible over the entire head, especially on the snout, nose, and eyes. Prominent round nostrils in the rectangular nose end the broad snout. A row of six teeth are visible below the nose. Two small round eye holes, spaced close together, sit between two thick, pale tan horns tipped in black. These sit on either side of the eyes pointing inward. Dark, nearly black fur tops the head; the fur is longish and wiry, standing up in places from the head. Lighter brown fur is positioned just above the eye holes. Two patches of buffalo hide are positioned below the eyes just before where the snout begins.

“Some objects in our collection are a bit of a mystery because they were acquired with limited documentation. One of our challenges as curators is to determine if the information in our records is correct. This Cherokee mask is dated between 1850 and 1900 which is a broad range of dates during which there was…  Read more

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Daily Art Moment: Wendy Red Star

In this photo, a female figure stands at the left wearing an embellished gold tunic, leggings, and shoes, her hands on her hips, and a huge feather headdress that obscures the face. Her legs cross one in front of the other, toes pointing out in a dancer’s pose. Gold jingles in conical shapes hang in horizontal rows for the full length of the textured tunic. Full, puffy sleeves end at the elbow, continuing to the wrist in a fitted fashion. The headpiece features black-tipped, white feathers splaying out from the crown, allowing some feathers to be viewed end to end. The top half of the face is covered by the feathers, the lower half and neck is coated in gold glitter. Long black hair extends from the head dress to below the shoulders. Gold, smooth leggings and gold ballet slippers complete the outfit. In the background, oversized planets fill the space. At right, an enormous muted grayish green, rough textured planet with a bright orange ring dominates the picture. A bright white object peeks out from behind the large planet at its top left, shooting rays of white light outward. A faint red-orange circle surrounds the light object, overlapping the huge planet’s edge. At far left top, another planet, mostly in dark shadow fills the corner of the photo. Its color ranges from almost black in the shadow to rusty browns. Beyond the planets the sky is depicted in a deep inky black with a multitude of tiny white dots representing stars. The gold clad figure stands on a craggy stretch of rock that protrudes into the photo from the bottom left edge towards the center of the photo.

“As we face uncertainty about our lives in the wake of a pandemic, I find comfort in works by Native artists who create visions of a future where traditional knowledge and culture continue to thrive. Crow artist Wendy Red Star created a photography and fashion series, Thunder Up Above (2011) which imagines this presence in…  Read more

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Daily Art Moment: Dakota artist

Rectangular line drawing with no modeling on lined white ledger paper (light blue vertical lines). Two figures in profile facing one another stand to left. A large black horse faces the couple in profile, taking up the remaining two thirds of the drawing. The young woman, far left, wears a red-and-white patterned blanket over a red skirt with black leggings and white moccasins. Her black hair is in braids and she has a red circle on her cheek, a bone or shell necklace indicated by black grided lines, and hoop-style earring. The young man figure wears a black blanket with a white stripe at each side, over black leggings with red and white triangle designs, and red and white-striped moccasins. A red stripe is painted along his jawline and a black-tipped white feather is attached to the back of his hair. The horse wears a red bridle, a white double-horned saddle depicted as a rectangle with three rows of horizontal stripes, and a black-tipped feather on his mane and tail. There is no background and the edges of the paper are torn and stained.

“This tender drawing of a couple courting was created by a Dakota artist at the end of the nineteenth century, a time of great loss and conflict for Native people on the northern plains. Yet the artist chose to depict an intimate moment. We see a young man with his arms outstretched toward a young…  Read more

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Bury the Hatchet Walk-through

Inside gallery view with two buffalo skulls hung on the wall with looping projections of running buffalos. On the left wall, there are a series of six posters which are densely covered with colorful symbols and marks.

This Virtual Walk-Through of Bury the Hatchet: Prayer For My P’ah-Be is narrated by Kathleen Ash-Milby, the Curator of Native American Art, and artist John Hitchcock. This multisensory installation was created by Comanche and Kiowa artist John Hitchcock, who combines his interests in printmaking, rock ‘n’ roll, and his family’s tribal history in a retelling…  Read more

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Daily Art Moment: Virgil Ortiz

Stylized figure adorned with black-and-white triangular patterns. Details include reddish circular earrings similar to the shape of the lips, a long ponytail, and whip.

“This figurine has somehow become my unofficial mascot since I started this position in 2019. She is an example of a powerful woman who is also beautiful and stylish. You might not even notice she is holding a whip! She reminds me to be brave and confident as I face many new responsibilities and challenges,…  Read more

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Daily Art Moment: Dyani White Hawk

A cropped, straight-on view of a red dentalium shell dress abstracted as a flat plane of color with intricate linework for beading.

This week we debuted a daily art moment from the Portland Art Museum curators on Instagram and Facebook. Follow along as we share works from the collection that our curators have selected as a personal response to these unprecedented times. “This print is from a portfolio dedicated to the role of caretaking by Native Women. Right now we need…  Read more