“Deer Spirit for Frank LaPena” by Rick Bartow
The Autry Museum in Griffith Park celebrates the late Native American artist Rick Bartow (1946-2016) with a major retrospective May 12, 2018 through January 6, 2019.
Entitled Things You Know But Cannot Explain, the exhibit includes large paintings, drawings, and sculptures from over 40 years of work, reflecting his personal influences of traditional Native American art, Basquiat, Rauschenberg and Francis Bacon, among other contemporary artists.
A member of the Mad River Band of the Wiyot tribe indigenous to Northern California, Bartow was a Vietnam vet who suffered from PTSD and alcoholism, and his work, which often features human/animal transformations, includes such dark themes as death and addiction. I personally find some of it intriguingly creepy. One of his most celebrated works is his pair of 20-foot sculptures on the National Mall in D.C., called “We Were Always Here,” commissioned in 2011 by The Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian.
“3 Hawks” by Rick Bartow
Bartow’s art is “emblematic of a groundbreaking generation that fundamentally shifted expectations and understanding of Native American art while engaging in a global conversation about art, trauma, and identity” (The Autry).
The Autry Museum is open 10-4pm Tuesday through Friday and 10-5pm on the weekends.
Admission is $14 adults, $10 students & seniors, and $6 for kids aged 3-12. For museum members, admission is free. Open and free to the general public on the second Tuesday of every month.
