Denver has an amazing museum of art. It has a carefully selected offering of about every major style or period and some specialty items. There is a floor dedicated to indigenous art of north America. There are the traditional and ancient arts of the people and lands, and modern works by native artists.
The painting above delighted me, and took my breath away. It is very large, probably 6 feet tall and and slightly over 10 feet across, and is an elaborate western mountain landscape, in a classic style. Then you look closer, and the painter standing at the easel is wearing thigh high red stiletto boots. All of the figures are male. The museum describes the painting as follows:
History is Painted by the Victors, 2013, ARTIST, Kent Monkman, Swampy Cree, Fisher River First Nation, b. 1965, Born: Ontario, Work Locations: Toronto, ON, CULTURE Swampy Cree | Fisher River First Nation, COUNTRY, Acrylic paint on canvas, Gift from Vicki and Kent Logan to the Collection of the Denver Art Museum.
I was simply amazed that a museum would recognize the genius in this work and have the strength to include it in their collection and exhibit. Bravo Denver Museum of Art! This is fabulous.
Sometime soon I will feature the painting that was around the corner from this, that tells a story that every person living in north American needs to know.
It's a beautiful painting!!! Detailed. And your right...kUDOS to them.
ReplyDeleteHave a good weekend!!!
Enjoy the Woods! Maybe you can recreate this scene,
DeleteWow! What a surprise on closer inspection.
ReplyDeleteI have some close up's,
DeleteI love art that seems one thing when viewed from afar and another upon closer inspection.
ReplyDeleteNext weeks post is much more in your face.
DeleteI cannot wait.
DeleteI suppose most US citizens are well educated about your Indian population. Here we only know bits, from old tv shows...terribly inaccurate, casinos and troublesome reservations.
ReplyDeleteI doubt that most US citizens have ever been to a reservation, spent time listening to the people talk about their life, really understand how poorly the natives were treated.
DeleteAs soon as I read "thigh high red stiletto boots," I knew it was a Kent Monkman painting! This two-spirit/gay Canadian indigenous artist is about as hot as you can get right now in the North American art scene. The drag queen in the thigh high red stiletto boots is his drag persona, Miss Chief Eagle Testickle. She frequently appears in his paintings skewering white racism. I went to a fabulous retrospective of his art a few years ago at the Winnipeg Art Gallery before he struck it big in the USA.
ReplyDeleteHis work is monumental - another one next Friday.
DeleteOh my gosh, I saw and exhibit of this works at the Phoenix Art Museum back in 2018. It was a series of video paintings that were described as a critique on the effects of colonialism on Native Americans. I was mesmerized by the each piece and how they displayed a different, more artistic version of history. It was a great exhibit.
ReplyDeleteI seldom have the attention to get the point of the video presentations
DeleteIsn't the painter on the canvas Kent Monkman's alter ego - Miss Chief Eagle Testickle? A deliberately androgynous figure. I only know this because I googled around.
ReplyDeleteThat sounds right, I didn't know who the artist was or the story, I just loved the painting.
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