Ingenious George

In one gallery of the Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture you can wander through the acclaimed collection of traditional American Indian artifacts. Now, if you venture into an adjacent gallery, you’ll find a provocative, eye-grabbing contrast, titled “George Longfish – A Retrospective.”

His giant paintings – some of which are more than 8 feet across – are laden with bright patterns, historical images, pop culture icons like the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, traditional symbols of hands and animals, and stenciled words that shout, among other things, “SACRED LAND,” “INTEGRITY” and “CUT RATE CIGARETTES.”

“His work reflects Native Americans today,” said Michael Holloman, director of the museum’s Center for Plateau Cultural Studies. “He deals with stereotyping, health care, diabetes, poverty.

“But there’s still a lot of humor, which is also a big part of Native American life.”

Holloman called Longfish, a key figure since the 1960s, one of the “elder statesmen” of contemporary Indian art. He’s a member of the Seneca and Tuscarora tribes, was brought up in upstate New York and attended the prestigious Art Institute of Chicago.

“George Longfish was early in the movement of artists who didn’t leave their traditions behind, but found a new voice and new forms to explore their own history and traditions,” said Ben Mitchell, the MAC’s art curator.

This retrospective covers a wide range of his career, beginning with his earliest work from the late 1960s and early 1970s, which show his interest in Op Art and minimalism.

Longfish has been quoted as saying that he really became interested in exploring his Native American heritage during a brief, yet crucial stint in Missoula from 1972 to 1973. He was the director of the University of Montana’s Graduate Program in American Indian Art, the first such program in the nation.

Surrounded by other Native American artists, he began to “reflect on his own identity,” according to Kate Morris, author of the exhibit’s catalog. He also “became politically galvanized by the events that unfolded that year (1973) at Wounded Knee, S.D.,” wrote Morris.

His work since then has often dealt directly with politics and social themes.

One of his most monumental pieces, a 1992 triptych that stretches 26 feet wide, includes the words “WOUNDED KNEE 1973” and “BROKEN TREATIES.” The title is “The End of the Innocence.”

Longfish went on to join the faculty of the University of California-Davis, where he remained for the next 30 years. He is retired from teaching – but not from art – and living in Maine.

In an essay he co-wrote with Joan Randall, Longfish once said, “There is among many Native American people almost a compulsion to communicate. The lines of communication go in a number of different directions, best understood through the metaphor of tribal runners.”

Native American artists, he said, fill the same function that tribal runners once did: “They carry information from their band/tribe/nation to others.”

The MAC exhibit features mostly paintings done in acrylic, along with a few sculptural pieces, such as “Thunder Stick Mask #1.”

This traveling exhibit was organized by the University of Montana, and already has had lengthy stays at the University of South Dakota, the University of Northern Iowa and the Holter Museum of Art in Helena.

After the MAC, it heads off to the South Dakota Art Museum in Brookings and the Museum of the Southwest in Midland, Texas.

The 56-page full-color catalog is for sale in the MAC’s gift store.