Highbrow Magazine - Smithsonian https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/smithsonian en Art That Shaped a Nation: 80 Years of Native American Painting https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/10382-art-shaped-nation-80-years-native-american-painting <div class="field field-name-field-cat field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/photography-art" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Photography &amp; Art</a></div></div></div><span class="submitted-by">Submitted by tara on Wed, 01/29/2020 - 20:14</span><div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1nativeart.jpg?itok=_081jseQ"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/1nativeart.jpg?itok=_081jseQ" width="328" height="437" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p> </p> <p>Most of us have a passing acquaintance of Native American art, and some of us from an early age—TV and film sagas of cowboys and Indians that led us on family vacations to the iconic treasures of a trading post.  Indian headdresses, tomahawks, colorful drums, turquoise jewelry, maybe even a dream-catcher or two we could add to our collection once back home.</p> <p>A visit to the <a href="https://www.si.edu/newsdesk/releases/upcoming-exhibition-smithsonians-national-museum-american-indian-examines-modern">National Museum of the American Indian</a>’s current exhibition, “Stretching the Canvas, Eight Decades of Native Painting,” at the Alexander Hamilton U.S. Custom House in New York City, will at the least challenge those lifelong presumptions.  Better still, it will prove that artistic genius is alive and thriving among the First Americans.  While the rest of us were in thrall of every new artistic movement making waves on the urban scene, these Navajo, Cherokee, Hopi, Crow, Cheyenne (and the list goes on) descendants were working behind the scenes all along to revolutionize our thinking.</p> <p><img alt="" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/2nativeart.jpg" style="height:475px; width:356px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>A beginning training ground for Oklahoma Native nations was led by Acee Blue Eagle who taught at Bacone College in Muskogee, Oklahoma.  These artists worked in an illustrative style -- <em>The Shalako People</em> by Fred Kabotie (1900-1986) from 1930 is a good example. Self-taught Indian painters educated in government-run schools were discouraged from individual innovation.  A 1930 government feasibility study warned: “Teaching unless properly supervised, is capable of destroying native arts.” But this would soon change.</p> <p>Quincy Tahoma (1917-1956) was an early member of the Santa Fe Indian School’s Studio program, breaking away from their static style, incorporating narrative and perspective in his works.  In <em>First Furlough 1943</em>, a Navajo family mirrors the nation’s wartime experiences. </p> <p>An early abstractionist in this eclectic mix was George Morrison (1919-2000) who gravitated to NYC’s Art Students League after WWII, and quickly embraced abstract expressionism with bold colors and spontaneous strokes.  After all, Native designs on pottery, blankets, and baskets had always been abstract, so some believed they were instinctively ahead of the curve.</p> <p> </p> <p><img alt="" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/3nativeart.jpg" style="height:356px; width:475px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>This spirit of change in the air did not go unnoticed by Native American women artists, and several of their works on display take center stage for this reviewer. Helen Hardin (1943-1984) gives us <em>Prayers of a Hopi Eagle</em> (1965) utilizing traditions of pottery design in an elegant swirling abstraction.  Kay Walkingstick (b.1935-) presents a brooding and dramatic abstract work, <em>Homage to Chief Joseph I (1975)</em> with colors reminiscent of a dying desert sunset placed inside of what appears to be a black proscenium theatre curtain.  Another later work, <em>New Mexico Desert</em> (2011) is a more expressionistic landscape of ochre buttes and roiling white clouds.  Judith Lowry (b.1948) has created  <em>Her Fortune</em> (1993), an instant draw to the eye with two women—a Madonna-like fortune-teller and sitting opposite her, a gussied-up, modern-day Indian princess who reacts to the fortune-cookie readings in front of her.  There’s a riveting, tongue-in-cheek quality to the work that is unforgettable.</p> <p> </p> <p>This is an exhibition full of surprises, as the artists shift their perspectives -- rejecting at times a rigid allegiance to their forebearers and accepting the artistic sway of art movements in the wider culture. </p> <p> </p> <p><img alt="" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/4nativeart.jpg" style="height:356px; width:475px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>In 1962, the Rockefeller Foundation initiated the Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA) in Santa Fe, New Mexico, which taught graphic design and painting reflecting Pop Art and modernist abstraction.  A perfect example of this evolution is in the work of Harry Fonseca (1946-2006).  He created an alter-ego, Coyote, in his paintings who appears here in <em>Dance Break</em> (1982) as four Koshare—Pueblo sacred clowns—eating cotton candy and smoking as they rest from feast day dances.  Irreverent and whimsical, this work in pale pinks and charcoals lets loose the artist’s illustrative talents.</p> <p>Dan Namingha (b. 1950) proves himself a striking colorist with <em>Pueblo at Dusk</em> (1987), a gorgeous display of acrylic washes lighting up an adobe village at the end of day.  Fritz Scholder (1937-2005) startles with his politically charged portrait, <em>The American Indian</em> (1970), wrapped in the American flag.  It’s as if the elderly chief had been asked unwittingly to pose for a TV commercial. </p> <p>Tony Abeyta (b.1965) has created a work of majestic complexity in its overall composition.  An honorable testament to its subject,<em> The Grand Canyon</em> (2015) captures the changing moods of that natural wonder by a powerful and kinetic collision of planes.</p> <p> </p> <p><img alt="" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/5nativeart.jpg" style="height:475px; width:356px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>Arguably, the most haunting work is <em>Deer Dancer for Hyacinth</em> (2001) by Rick Bartow.  (1946-2016).  A Pacific Northwest artist, he fought with addiction and post-traumatic stress that emerges in his dark compositions.  Here, his distorted male figure appears to be in a state of transformation, his head sprouting antlers.  The power of this large pastel, charcoal, and pencil drawing suggests the raw intensity of Austrian painter Egon Schiele’s naked portraits.</p> <p>It would be remiss not to mention the Alexander Hamilton U.S. Custom House, one of the most beautiful examples of Beaux Art architecture in the city.  Designed by Cass Gilbert (who later designed the Woolworth Building), it now houses the George Gustav Heyes Center of the National Museum of the American Indian (the New York branch of the Smithsonian collection in Washington, DC.)  The Custom House is also home to the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern district of New York, and since 1912, the National Archives at New York City. </p> <p> </p> <p><img alt="" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/6nativeart.jpg" style="height:356px; width:475px" /></p> <p> </p> <p>For those visitors interested in viewing this stunning example of modern and contemporary Native art on view until Fall 2021, I recommend allowing extra time to appreciate the lavish sculptures, paintings and decorations that embellish the façade of the Custom House, the two-story entry portico, the main hall, and especially the second floor rotunda, where you will find a cycle of murals from 1937 by Reginald Marsh, commissioned by the Treasury Relief Art Project and aided by the Works Project Administration (WPA).</p> <p>And, if you’re so inclined, the gift shop directly opposite the exhibition is chockfull of Native American sculpture, jewelry, pottery, publications, and souvenirs to satisfy any and every budget.  If New York residents and tourists alike would put a visit to this museum on their wish list, these remarkable Native artists would be that much closer to the inclusion in the larger society they deserve.</p> <p> </p> <p><strong><em>The free exhibition runs through Fall 2021 at the National Museum of the American Indian New York, One Bowling Green, New York City.</em></strong></p> <p> </p> <p><strong><em>Author Bio:</em></strong></p> <p> </p> <p><strong><em>Sandra Bertrand is </em></strong><strong>Highbrow Magazine’s</strong><strong><em> chief art critic.</em></strong></p> <p> </p> <p><strong>For Highbrow Magazine</strong></p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/museum-american-indian" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Museum of the American Indian</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/native-american-artists" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">native american artists</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/indian-american-paintings" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">indian american paintings</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/new-york-art-scene" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">New York art scene</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/smithsonian" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Smithsonian</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/dan-namingha" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">dan namingha</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tony-abeyta" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">tony abeyta</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/george-morrison" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">george morrison</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/rick-bartow" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">rick bartow</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Sandra Bertrand</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pop field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Popular:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">not popular</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-photographer field-type-text field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Photographer:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">All photos courtesy of the Museum of the American Indian</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-bot field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Bottom Slider:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Out Slider</div></div></div> Thu, 30 Jan 2020 01:14:06 +0000 tara 9322 at https://www.highbrowmagazine.com https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/10382-art-shaped-nation-80-years-native-american-painting#comments Renowned Artist Xavier Viramontes Discusses His Career and Famous Political Artwork https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/1135-renowned-chicano-artist-xavier-viramontes-discusses-his-career-and-famous-political-artwork <div class="field field-name-field-cat field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/photography-art" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Photography &amp; Art</a></div></div></div><span class="submitted-by">Submitted by tara on Tue, 05/01/2012 - 20:28</span><div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/mediumxavier.jpg?itok=lIKOKjmI"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/mediumxavier.jpg?itok=lIKOKjmI" width="480" height="360" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p>  </p> <p> From <a href="http://newamericamedia.org/news/">New America Media</a> and <a href="http://richmondpulse.org/">Richmond Pulse</a>:</p> <p>  </p> <p>  </p> <p> Xavier Viramontes is a nationally renowned printmaker whose prints impacted many political movements and social justice campaigns during the 1970s. His prints are also part of the revolutionary canon of Chicano art produced at Galeria de la Raza in San Francisco. His most famous print, “Boycott Grapes, Support the United Farm Workers Union” from 1973, which depicts an Aztec warrior smashing grapes with his fists as the grape juice and blood drip over the title, is in the permanent collection of the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C.</p> <p>  </p> <p> <strong>Richmond Childhood Memories</strong></p> <p> “The Richmond [Calif.] I refer to is this one, the old Richmond,” says Viramontes as he places the Richmond Museum’s photographic history book <em>Images of America: Richmond</em> on the cafe table. The book contains photographs of Richmond during the first half of the 20th Century, from the Californio period up to World War II and the city’s de-industrialization in the 1950s. The photographs, especially those of MacDonald Avenue, remind Viramontes of his childhood and family.</p> <p>  </p> <p> “They used to have a number of theaters like the UA or the Fox (on MacDonald Avenue). There was the Rio Theater where they used to show Mexican movies. My grandmother and aunts used to love going there because my grandmother only spoke Spanish and would be able to see her movies,” remembers Viramontes.</p> <p> <img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/4mediumxavier.jpg" style="width: 600px; height: 395px; " /></p> <p> Born on September 16,1943  in Richmond Hospital, Viramontes describes his household as a typical Mexican-American and Catholic family, where social gatherings revolved around baptisms, first communions, and religious festivities out at Saint Paul’s Church on Church Drive. In addition to his six siblings, Viramontes also had seven cousins living next door. They were a multigenerational family. Made up of immigrants, first- and second-generation Americans, all were workers at Richmond’s cannery and factories. In 1949, his family moved from MacDonald Avenue to Merritt Avenue and Broadway in San Pablo, across from the now nonexistent Broadway Elementary in a neighborhood comprised mostly of Mexican-American and White Southern families.</p> <p>  </p> <p> According to Viramontes, there was mostly interracial harmony, even during the heyday of the Pachuco and Zoot Suit youth subcultures during the war era. The Pachuco culture involved Chicano youth dressed in draped and perfectly creased pants, cuffed long sleeve shirts and pompadour style hairdo’s. It was seen as a clear exaggeration of excess at a time when the U.S. government had placed rations on commercial items. The Zoot Suit culture in the Richmond and San Pablo suburbs, says Viramontes, was never as intense as it was in Los Angeles, yet it was still discouraged by the older generation of Mexican parents. “My friends and cousins were taking on that style, although ‘zoot-suitors’ were considered hooligans and parents discouraged it,” says Viramontes. “I have some photographs of my cousins wearing zoot suits,” he chuckles.</p> <p>  </p> <p> <strong>Art and Politics</strong></p> <p> Xavier Viramontes’ nourishment in the visual arts began early in his childhood by way of drawing his surroundings, and continued as he took art classes at Helms Middle School and later at Richmond Union High School. Viramontes graduated from RUHS in 1961, and was enrolled in Contra Costa Community College until he was drafted into the military and stationed in Germany. Being in Europe, Viramontes says he visited high-profile museums such as El Prado in Madrid and the Louvre in Paris. At seeing the contemporary and classical artworks, Viramontes felt encouraged to be the artist he always was.</p> <p> <img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/2mediumxavier.jpg" style="width: 600px; height: 808px; " /></p> <p> Upon his return in 1969 and supported by the American GI Bill to attend college, Viramontes immediately enrolled at the San Francisco Art Institute (SFAI) and left San Pablo for the Mission District in San Francisco. Viramontes completed his studies at SFAI in 1973, and continued at San Francisco State, where he earned an MFA in Printmaking in 1977. Viramontes was also taking printmaking courses at San Francisco City College, and following his graduation from SF State, he began to teach printmaking and etching at City College. As his focus on printmaking sharpened, Viramontes found himself inspired by the Romanesque movie posters for Hollywood films like <em>Ben Hur</em> and <em>The Ten Commandments</em>, that were so prominent on the MacDonald Avenue theaters of his childhood.</p> <p>  </p> <p> “The thing about the posters were that they were very colorful movie posters, exciting and exaggerated. I like this exaggerated imagery,” says Viramontes. “I started with painting, but I went into printmaking because of the fact that you could duplicate the images and share them with people. I could never sell my paintings because I wanted to keep them,” explains Viramontes.</p> <p>  </p> <p> The accessible distribution of printmaking intertwined with the political when Viramontes became involved in San Francisco’s legendary Galeria de la Raza on 24th and Bryant in the Mission District, during his time as a student at SFAI and SF State. It was powerful and reassuring to work with Latino artists interested in establishing their presence through a gallery and political involvement in the Mission community. At Galeria, Viramontes became one of the pioneers in Chicano art. His political artwork addressed a wide range of local issues -- from resisting the closure of the International Hotel in Chinatown with his prints, commemorating the unjust murder of Danny Trevino by cops on an interactive and public billboard, to his prints for the United Farm Workers union. Every weekend, he recalls, Galeria artists would have art parties and produce works for political campaigns.</p> <p>  </p> <p> Viramontes would regularly visit his family in San Pablo, but he noticed the city remained quiet, seemingly untouched by the anti-Vietnam war demonstrations and people of color movements such as the Chicano, Black Panther Party, and Asian-American movements that were occurring in Oakland, Berkeley and San Francisco.</p> <p> <img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/3mediumxavier.jpg" style="width: 600px; height: 772px; " /></p> <p> <strong>Full Circle</strong></p> <p> It wasn’t until the mid-1990s, after living in San Francisco’s Mission District for 25 years, that Viramontes returned home to San Pablo, where he still lives and remains politically engaged through his art and community work. Still teaching at City College, Viramontes is now designing works for Occupy Oakland that focus on Medicare and social security. He is also a member of the San Pablo Community Alliance and a steering committee member for the Helms Community Center in San Pablo.</p> <p>  </p> <p> Viramontes’ formal involvement in San Pablo political activism began in 2010 when he and other residents rallied against a proposed return to eminent domain by the San Pablo City Council. First known as San Pablo Against Eminent Domain, the resident group mobilized the city’s neighborhoods, and as a result, the proposal was struck down by San Pablo’s city council. The group then became the San Pablo Community Alliance, a resident group that discusses city council ideas.</p> <p>  </p> <p> Viramontes felt compelled to organize against eminent domain out of personal experience. In 1957, he and his family were uprooted from their San Pablo home on Merritt Avenue by way of eminent domain. “I know about eminent domain. I know it can uproot people and destroy families,” he says. Viramontes explains that in order to expand Broadway Elementary, the city had seized 10 houses. However, the expansion never occurred, and Broadway Elementary closed in 1986. Viramontes has commemorated those childhood memories in his prints.</p> <p>  </p> <p> As a steering committee member of the proposed Helms Community Center, Viramontes is adamant on the inclusion of the arts in Helms and San Pablo. He hopes to develop an arts program for students once the center is built and create a gallery of multicultural artwork that reflects the diverse student body, which is expected to grow to 1,200.</p> <p>  </p> <p> “If you have that many kids, you want to have something to calm down the situation. I think art has a very calming nature and I especially see no images of brown people. You don’t really see family situations that 70 percent of kids can relate to,” he says. It’s important, says Virmontes, that students of color see positive images of themselves and family; images that were lacking when he was a child. “That’s why I want to get some of my work and other artists work into Helms.”</p> <p>  </p> <p> <a href="http://newamericamedia.org/2012/04/pioneer-of-chicano-art-still-going-strong-in-bay-area.php">New America Media</a></p> <p> <em><strong>All photos from XavierViramontes.com</strong></em></p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/xavier-viramontes" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">xavier viramontes</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/chicano-art" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">chicano art</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/california" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">California</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/political-art" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">political art</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/smithsonian" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Smithsonian</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/galeria-de-la-raza" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Galeria de la Raza</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/san-francisco" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">San Francisco</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Edgardo Cervano-Soto</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pop field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Popular:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">not popular</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-photographer field-type-text field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Photographer:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">All photos from XavierViramontes.com</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-bot field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Bottom Slider:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Out Slider</div></div></div> Wed, 02 May 2012 00:28:04 +0000 tara 875 at https://www.highbrowmagazine.com https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/1135-renowned-chicano-artist-xavier-viramontes-discusses-his-career-and-famous-political-artwork#comments