Ecurb
04-19-2015, 06:58 PM
I went to the opening of an exhibit at the Schnitzer (U. of Oregon) art museum featuring the work of Rick Bartow. Bartow is a native American artist from Newport, Oregon. The show was stunningly good. Bartow paints and sculpts with equal brilliance. His themes are often (but not always) Native American -- crow spirits and humans together, for example.
Here's a website about the exhibit -- the reproductions don't do justice to the art:
http://www.oregonlive.com/travel/index.ssf/2015/02/jordan_schnitzer_museum_of_art.html
Here's a website that includes a picture of one of his sculptures:
http://www.iaia.edu/museum/vision-project/artists/rick-bartow/
If you google him you'll see more.
I went to the museum with some friends of mine who knew Bartow well -- from when they lived in Newport on the coast. The show was called, "Things You Know, but Cannot Explain" -- and all of the paintings and sculptures have names that demonstrate Bartow's literary talent -- just as the name of the show does. Of course I was wisecracking that my approach is different -- I concentrate on things I can explain, but don't know.
The exhibit opened with a touching Native American ceremony, complete with drums and chanting. My friends had some excellent Rick Bartow stories. When one was in Middle School in Newport, Rick Bartow was the janitor at the school. He was a Vietnam vet, already painting and he also played in a popular local band. Needless to say, the kids thought he was the coolest janitor of all time, and I'm sure they were right. He and his band -- Rick Bartow and the Backseat Drivers -- played at the Schnitzer opening. They were great -- despite the fact that Bartow has had a couple of strokes, and sometimes forgets the lyrics.
One of the paintings in the exhibit was a gripping abstract of a woman, with a skeleton coming up behind her and grabbing her breasts. Another of Bartow's friends told me that he had been married to one of the sweetest, kindest women, a cute blonde who worked in Health care and helped him kick alcohol. She was diagnosed with breast cancer at age 50 (or so), and died within a couple of weeks of the diagnosis. The story made the painting -- stunning in its own right - even more poignant.
Bartow is well known in Oregon. Have artsy types in the rest of America heard of him, Litnetters?
Here's a website about the exhibit -- the reproductions don't do justice to the art:
http://www.oregonlive.com/travel/index.ssf/2015/02/jordan_schnitzer_museum_of_art.html
Here's a website that includes a picture of one of his sculptures:
http://www.iaia.edu/museum/vision-project/artists/rick-bartow/
If you google him you'll see more.
I went to the museum with some friends of mine who knew Bartow well -- from when they lived in Newport on the coast. The show was called, "Things You Know, but Cannot Explain" -- and all of the paintings and sculptures have names that demonstrate Bartow's literary talent -- just as the name of the show does. Of course I was wisecracking that my approach is different -- I concentrate on things I can explain, but don't know.
The exhibit opened with a touching Native American ceremony, complete with drums and chanting. My friends had some excellent Rick Bartow stories. When one was in Middle School in Newport, Rick Bartow was the janitor at the school. He was a Vietnam vet, already painting and he also played in a popular local band. Needless to say, the kids thought he was the coolest janitor of all time, and I'm sure they were right. He and his band -- Rick Bartow and the Backseat Drivers -- played at the Schnitzer opening. They were great -- despite the fact that Bartow has had a couple of strokes, and sometimes forgets the lyrics.
One of the paintings in the exhibit was a gripping abstract of a woman, with a skeleton coming up behind her and grabbing her breasts. Another of Bartow's friends told me that he had been married to one of the sweetest, kindest women, a cute blonde who worked in Health care and helped him kick alcohol. She was diagnosed with breast cancer at age 50 (or so), and died within a couple of weeks of the diagnosis. The story made the painting -- stunning in its own right - even more poignant.
Bartow is well known in Oregon. Have artsy types in the rest of America heard of him, Litnetters?