A human model would not have the dog’s stamina, patience, verve, or seriousness.

-William Wegman

Although Wegman has experimented with many types of visual art as well as many subjects, he is most famous for his photographs and short films involving his gray Weimaraner dogs, Man Ray and Fay Ray. He often depicts them in situations that wouldn’t typically involve dogs and often dresses them in costumes made for humans.

In Wegman’s Ride, a purple velvet chair is pushed back so it is leaning solely on its back legs. The wood frame of the chair is visible. A Weimaraner dog is sitting in the chair, with only her head and front paws visible. She has a sort of regal, unconcerned look, despite the fact that the chair is tipped backwards. The chair’s shadow is visible in the photo.

In Override, a similar concept is being presented. The same purple velvet chair is shown in the same position, but this time the dog is in a profile view, facing the opposite way. She is standing up, attempting to brace himself from falling off the edge. Her tail is tucked under her, as if she was frightened. Again the chair’s shadow is visible.

Both pieces were anonymously donated to Plains Art Museum in 1996.

Artist Bio

William Wegman is famous for his photographs and videos involving gray Weimaraners.

Wegman was born in Holyoke, Massachusetts in 1942. He studied at the Massachusetts College of Art in Boston, where he received a BFA in painting in1965. Two years later he earned an MFA from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign and began teaching at the University of Wisconsin. In 1970, he moved to California and taught at the University of Long Beach.

Wegman became very interested in both photography and video while in California. He also bought a Weimaraner and named him Man Ray after the famous modern artist. It became the subject of many of his large scale color photographs. In 1972, the artist and his dog moved to New York. Another Weimaraner, Fay Ray, became part of the Wegman family in 1986, and thus an additional subject for Wegman to use in his photography. At this time, Wegman began using a Polaroid 20 x 24 camera to capture his dogs on film.

Wegman has earned several grants and awards for his work. In addition to teaching, Wegman has contributed film and video work to such television shows as Nickelodeon, Saturday Night Live, Sesame Street, and several others. His film “The Hardly Boys in Hardly Gold,” starring his dogs, was shown at the Sundance Film Festival in 1996.

Wegman’s work has been exhibited worldwide and is currently in the collections of the Brooklyn Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the International Museum of Photography in Rochester, New York, the Museum of Modern Art in Paris, the Carnegie Institute and Museum of Art in Pittsburgh, the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.; the Minneapolis Institute of Arts and the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, Plains Art Museum in Fargo, the Museum of Fine Art and De Meril Collection in Houston, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and the Los Angeles Co Museum of Art, and many others.

left: William Wegman, Ride, an ed. of PP 1/4, 1993, color lithograph, 37.5 x 50″
right: William Wegman, Override, an ed. of PP 1/4, 1993, color lithograph, 37.5 x 50″

Black Elk’s Little Sandman is a perfect example of his visually compelling mix of subjects. At first glance, the piece seems symmetrical, with two totem pole-looking borders on either side and a bright circle in the middle, with a “traditional” Indian in the center of it. The drawing is filled many different motifs, including Native Americans, mainstream “American” symbols, pop culture allusions, and animals.

Throughout the drawing Star portrays Native Americans and objects that are often associated with them. In the center, a “typical” Indian holds what looks to be a pipe, and is drawn in a “traditional” fashion. There are two other woman in the picture who are drawn in a similar fashion. There are many symbols relating to Star’s culture throughout the drawing as well, as can be seen by the many feathers, totem poles, and icons of nature.

Star Wallowing Bull also included many standard American symbols in his drawing. There are images of the Statue of Liberty, the American Eagle, the American Flag, and the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center. Also, a figure that appears in many of Star’s pieces is the tiny man below the Indian man in the center, looking bruised and confused, with a question mark over his head. It could be a self-portrait of Star as a baby.

Several popular culture icons are found throughout the drawing, however many of them have been altered to seem more “Indian.” The most striking example of this is an image of Yoda in full traditional Native American dress. Star also included a parody of Edvard Munch’s Screaming Man, but wearing traditional dress as well. Part of Darth Maul’s face is included in the drawing, however it hardly looks out of place with the other Indian patterns throughout the piece. This is also true for the two drama masks he portrays. Many of the totem poles look like Transformers, another alteration of common pop icons.

Star included several animals in his drawing. One of the most striking is the monkey in the lower left hand side. There are also images of an alligator, a dinosaur, mean-looking fish, a gecko, and bats. Butterflies and prehistoric-looking bugs are found throughout the drawing. It seems Star is using these animals instead of “traditional” American Indian animals like the buffalo, deer, or birds. Star uses many more images in his art that make it quite the eclectic statement of his view of the 21 st century.

Plains Art Museum purchased this piece in 2003.

Artist Bio

When I was just a year old my father set me in his lap, put a pencil in my hand and started me drawing. It is his art that has had the greatest influence on me.

-Star Wallowing Bull

One of the Midwest’s newest artists, Star Wallowing Bull has gained recognition for his intricate and elaborate colored pencil drawings.

Star Wallowing Bull was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in 1973. Being of Ojibwa and Arapaho decent, he spent most of his childhood on the south side of Minneapolis, until he dropped out of school when he was 17. He turned to drinking as a method to deal with personal problems, but he was able to overcome his abuse of alcohol and continues to create art that has been well received throughout the Midwest. Star was commissioned along with his father, Frank Big Bear, Jr., to create a 26-foot long mural for the atrium in Plains Art Museum in 2003. He was recently invited to be a guest artist at the prestigious Tamarind School for printmaking in Santa Fe.

Star Wallowing Bull is known for his vibrant Prismacolor pencil drawings. While his art appears similar to that of his father, Frank Big Bear, Jr., in fact, it is quite different. Star’s work is more affected by the media and incorporates specific historical events. He also uses many autobiographical references so his art becomes a diary of his personal evolution.

Star Wallowing Bull was awarded the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian Native Artist Fellowship in 2001 and was given the Juror Award in 2002 from Plains Art Museum. He has also been published in several magazines and newspapers in the Twin Cities.

Star Wallowing Bull’s art has been exhibited at the Carl Gorman Museum at the University of California, the Texas Women’s University, the La Fonda Hotel in Santa Fe, Plains Art Museum in Fargo/Moorhead, the Two Rivers Gallery at the Minneapolis American Indian Center, the Wesiman Art Museum, and the Bockley Gallery, all in Minneapolis.

Star Wallowing Bull, Black Elk’s Little Sandman, 2002, Prismacolor pencils on paper, 36 x 50″

I don’t try for any stock formula approach. I’m not looking for the specific visual thing. I just kind of end up on the water tower, and there it is.

-Todd H. Strand

Todd Strand is known for his black and white photography that attempts to capture “honest and indiscriminate” scenes, primarily of North Dakota. He often takes photos with a Widelux camera that has a rotating lens which produces a panoramic image, often with a Funhouse effect. His work has been described as producing a “sensitive record of moods and attitudes of other senses besides the visual” by Fargo Forum writer Sylvia Paine.

This black and white photo was taken of the Chilcock School just south of White Earth, ND for the Dakota Photo Documentary Project of 1976. It shows the entire school body of 11 students and their teacher in front of what looks like a one-room schoolhouse. The building appears to be run down with its faded, dirty white paint chipping. A tattered and frayed American flag flies in the strong wind. There are no other buildings within close proximity of the school. A short row of buildings can be seen in the far distance. Despite the appearance of a poverty-stricken small town, the children all look nicely dressed in slacks and sweaters or T-shirts. Many of the children are squinting and the teacher is attempting to hold her hairdo, looking exasperated in the very strong winds. Strand captured the essence of the harsh environment and the steadfast determination and resilience of the North Dakota people.

His work has been exhibited at Plains Art Museum in Fargo, the North Data Museum of Art in Grand Forks, and several others within the Midwest, especially in North Dakota.

Strand donated the photograph to Plains Art Museum in 1981.

Artist Bio

As a result of this prairie environment, my photography concerns itself with looking around honestly and seemingly indiscriminately.

-Todd H. Strand

Todd Hunter Strand is known for his honest and sensitive portrayals of small town North Dakota.

Strand was born in Rugby, ND in January of 1951. His father was a photographer and often brought Strand to assist him to his wedding shoots. Strand attended Concordia College in Moorhead, MN, from 1969-1971 and went on to earn his Bachelor’s Degree in Printmaking from the University of Arkansas in Fayatteville in 1974.

After doing some freelance work, Strand was asked to participate in the 1976 Dakota Photo Documentary Project, which was a photo survey of every single town in North Dakota. Since then Strand has never strayed from his home for long. Even when he photographed a skating rink in New York, the resultant photo reminds the viewer of the wide expanse of the North Dakota horizon. He lives in Bismarck, ND where he is the Curator of Photography for the State Historical Society of North Dakota. Strand continues to work primarily in North Dakota, capturing what he sees as real-life scenes.

Todd H. Strand, The Student Body and Teacher My Helling at the Chilcock School south of White Earth, ND, 1976, black and white photograph, 12 1/2 x 20″

I don’t like to talk about the work itself. I talk around it. The work is visual; people can approach it on whatever level they choose, and its meaning depends on their frame of reference. That’s what they are going to get out of it.

-Fritz Scholder

Fritz Scholder is known for his untraditional depiction of American Indians and his rejection of the sentimental stereotype of the “noble savage.” Instead, he shows Indians as individuals and uses primitive and popular sources to comment on contemporary society and its treatment of natives. Scholder paints simplified forms, uses symbolism to represent ideas, and uses color to show an inner reality of feelings, ideas, and symbols. He has been said to combine elements of Abstract Expressionism, Surrealism and Pop Art, although he claims his work is really a “celebration of color.”

Scholder’s familiarity with pueblos are evident in Kiva Rest. Centrally located in a pueblo village, the kiva structure is a site where men would perform their daily activities as well as their secretive religious ceremonies with sacred dancing and dramatic reenactments of Pueblo origins. Scholder employs vivid colors and lively gestures to express the celebratory atmosphere in a kiva. He offers a glimpse into that mysterious world through an unidentifiable, seated figure engulfed in the glow of firelight. Even the cool shadows come alive with a flickering of intense colors. The colors in Kiva Rest also imply the personal relationship Scholder has with the southwest landscape and culture from the warm yellows and pinks to the turquoise blues.

This piece was purchased by Plains Art Museum in 1979 and was funded by the Clara Cupler Kornberg Bequest with matching funds from the National Endowment for the Arts.

Artist Bio

For me, the real job of painting is the actual act. It’s a very sensuous activity. You have a flexible brush and buttery paint and color, and the canvas moves when you touch it.

-Fritz Scholder

Fritz Scholder, one of the most successful artists to come out of the Midwest, is considered to be one of the leading artists in what he calls “real Indian” art.

Scholder was born in Breckenridge, Minnesota and spent much of his childhood in Wahpeton, North Dakota. In 1957, after spending his first year of college at Wisconsin State University in Superior, he moved to California with his family and continued his formal art training. Acclaimed artist Wayne Thiebaud was one of his teachers in Sacramento and assisted in arranging the young artist’s first show in 1958. Scholder received his BFA from California State and MFA from the University of Arizona.

Although Scholder is of Lusieño and German descent, he was not raised in a Native American environment. For several years he vowed never to depict a Native American in his work. He opposed the stylized, clichéd imagery often employed to portray Native Americans. However, from 1964 to 1969, when Scholder taught at the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, he became interested in his ancestry. He studied the surrounding culture by attending dances, collecting artifacts, and visiting Pueblos. Scholder’s first portrait of a Native American in 1967 was actually an attempt to better understand the problems a student was having with painting the subject. It was the beginning of a series on the Native American that lasted over thirteen years. As the first artist to paint Native Americans with beer cans and the American flag, Scholder stirred up controversy. By depicting imagery of what he calls the “real Indian”, he emerged as a leader among Native American artists. In his studios in Santa Fe and New York, Scholder continues to make art that offers new visual experiences in painting, sculpture, and prints.

Scholder has received several fellowships and awards throughout his career from the Whitney Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation, Ford Foundation, and the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He has been acknowledged by five honorary degrees, including one from Concordia College and has been highlighted in several magazines, books, videos, and art journals.

Scholder’s work has been exhibited around the world including the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris, the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the National Museum of American Art in Washington D.C., Plains Art Museum in Fargo, the Milwaukee Art Museum, and countless others throughout the southwest and the rest of the country.

Fritz Scholder, Kiva Rest, 1977, acrylic on canvas, 40 x 30″

Painting is probably more exciting than advertising so why shouldn’t it be done with that power and gusto, that impact.

-James Rosenquist

James Rosenquist is credited with being one of the leading protagonists of the Pop Art movement because of his billboard-like art and interesting subject matter. Although closely aligned with this movement, his work differs from “typical” Pop Art. Rosenquist uses perspective much more than other artists and realistically portrays three-dimensional objects in his paintings. He uses a larger and much more varied color palette in his works and relies much more heavily on hand painting. He also creates dramatic shifts in scale. Yet, while his art might seem like a billboard, it is exactly unlike one. His works have no clear singular message. In his pieces, he uses objects that appeal to him like cars, food, paperclips, small objects and often manipulates scale to the extreme. Spaghetti will be made to look larger than an automobile. He uses lavish colors painted on top of a white lead paint base. According to art historian Peter Schjeldahl, they have the “sheen of digital creations, in spite of their traditional process.” Rosenquist believes pictorial space is more important than imagery and his use of imagery is often more synthetic rather than analytic. Irony is only a minor component of his work. His work has been categorized as a new type of history painting – minus the rhetoric and clear moralizing.

Horse Blinders (east) is one of Rosenquist’s color lithograph and screenprints. The image consists of what appears to be a spoon in a cup of yogurt or pudding, with the foil peeled back. A piece of electrical cable enters into that image from the left, however the cable could easily be confused for some sort of paint brush. Rosenquist uses bright colors, including a color spectrum behind the cup, while in the forefront there are skinny stripes of red, white, and blue, on top of blotched black and blue spots over the red, pink, and orange. Rosenquist could be making a commentary on kitchen technology and how it is either removing or creating our “horse blinders.”

Wells Fargo Bank donated this piece to Plains Art Museum in 2003.

Artist Bio

I’m a prairie-thinking man.

-James Rosenquist

James Rosenquist, credited with being one of the 5 most important painters of the Pop Art movement along with Warhol, Lichtenstein, Oldenburg, and Wesselmann, is known for his billboard-like paintings.

Rosenquist was born in Grand Forks, North Dakota in 1933 and spent a number of his early years learning how to draw and paint. He attended the University of Minnesota, where he studied under Cameron Booth. Rosenquist supported himself by painting grain elevators, storage bins and signs across the region. At Booth’s urging, Rosenquist moved to New York in 1955 where he attended the Art Student’s League on a scholarship. He remained at the school for only a year and drifted towards a job painting billboards.

In 1958, he started producing what curator Walter Hopps calls his first “truly mature paintings” which Rosenquist coined the “wrong-color paintings” because he used cheap, left over paint from his jobs. In 1960, a significant shift occurred in Rosenquist’s style as he started using aspects of billboard painting in his art. His commercial billboard days ended when he was first identified as a new and important member of the Pop Art movement at Richard Bellamy’s Green Gallery in February of 1962. He continued gaining success throughout the world, and although he emerged as an important figure in Pop Art, Hopps claims that “his significant work began independently of the movement and continued on to become something that was quite distinct from it.” In 1971, Rosenquist and his wife and son were badly injured in a serious car accident, which drastically disrupted his career. Towards the end of the 1970s, however, Rosenquist was back in full force and continues to create paintings and sculptures today. His most famous and well-known piece from 1965, F-111, was purchased by the Museum of Modern Art in New York for its permanent collection.

Rosenquist tackles a variety of subjects, often on the same canvas, and yet he seems to make an extremely disparate composition somehow rational. He allows images that one doesn’t necessarily associate to collide in his work. His subjects often revolve around consumer products, scientific instruments, electronic communication, fragments of both famous and unknown people, antiwar and antigun statements, flowers, dolls, and many other objects. When asked why he portrays spaghetti so often in his pieces, Rosenquist replied, “Two reasons: I like the way it looks, and I like the way it tastes.”

His work has been exhibited throughout the world including at the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa, the Tretiakov Gallery in Moscow, the Pyo Gallery in Seoul, South Korea, the Center for Contemporary Graphic Art in Fukushima, Japan, the Deutsche Guggenheim in Berlin, the Mayor Gallery in London, the Thorden Wetterling Galleries in Goteborg, Sweden, and many others. His work has also been exhibited throughout the United States including at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, the Seattle Art Museum, the Tampa Museum of Art, Plains Art Museum in Fargo/Moorhead, the Museum of Fine Arts in St. Petersburg, the Denver Art Museum, and many others.

James Rosenquist, Horse Blinders (east), an ed. of 37/85, 1972, color lithograph and screenprint with metallic paper, 36.5 x 68″

I address the action and energy of the horse and rider in conflict, one aspect of rodeo. I intend to present it in a contemporary painterly manner without the romance and sentiment that so often dominates Western Americana subjects.

-Walter Piehl Jr.

Walter Piehl, Jr., known for his vibrant, expressionistic Western-theme paintings, captures the energy of a rodeo, especially of the horse and rider, in his piece breezy music: sweetheart of the rodeo. The work consists of a bucking horse and mounted cowboy figure, which is composed of sketched gestures and rapid movement strokes. The figures are shown in full body profile, facing the right, and are on the upper two-thirds of the canvas. The cowboy is wearing a lime green shirt, a pencil sketched hat, and has his left hand gestured upward into the air. The horse is layered with washes and splatters of colors including rust, blue, purple, black, and magenta. The background is white mixed with similarly lighter toned, swirling, washes of color. Piehl, a one-time rodeo rider himself, applies his painting in an Abstract Expressionist style. His drawing on the surface of the painting suggests the motion and action of horse and rider. Thanks to his teacher, draftsman Robert A. Nelson, and his own natural abilities, Piehl has a mastered command of drawing. His work proudly portrays North Dakota’s artistic and cultural heritage.

This work is included in a series by the artist entitled “sweetheart of the rodeo.” While the artist’s style has changed over the years, the concept of the work has remained constant. The series is dedicated to the sweetheart of the rodeo, the bucking horse. His intent is to address the action, energy, and conflict between the rider and horse and to present it in a manner of a contemporary artist. The series has toured the southwest as well as the Midwest.

Plains Art Museum purchased this piece in 1991.

Artist Bio

I like paradox, contradiction, color, line, and putting on paint—but not necessarily in that order.

-Walter Piehl Jr.

Walter Piehl, Jr., known for his action-packed paintings of “real” Western genres in an Abstract Expressionist style, has emerged as an important North Dakota artist.

Piehl was born in Marion, ND on August 1, 1942. He received his Bachelor’s degree in art from Concordia College in Moorhead, Minnesota. He earned both an MA and an MFA from the University of North Dakota in Grand Forks. Piehl has taught at the University of Minnesota, Mayville State College, as well as Valley City University. He is currently an art professor at Minot State University where he has been teaching since 1970.

Piehl grew to love horses and the rodeo at an early age when he would assist his father, who was a horse dealer and part-time rodeo producer. Having tried his hand at riding, Piehl later worked as a rodeo announcer for thirty years. His artistic talents and his love for the rodeo led him to explore the creative possibilities of representing the fast and furious action of the sport on the painted canvas. Piehl, having grown up in a state without the benefit of an art museum, became a teacher to not only pursue his love of painting, but to teach and share his appreciation of art with others.

Piehl’s work has been highly respected within the esoteric genres of Western art; but is little known outside this genre. Piehl is a vibrant, creative artist, who has explored a variety of media and subjects. His work is often misunderstood or worse, misinterpreted because of the subjects he portrays: rodeos, cowboys, cowgirls, horses and its defining ephemera. Piehl’s creativity transcends his subject. He expresses his subjects in a manner and style that is indicative of their active nature, but he never descends into the cliché or retrograde. Piehl himself has been critical of an art market that merely seeks to replicate Remingtons and Russells. Piehl demands more of his artistic expression. Curator Gordon McConnell has written that Piehl uses color and brushwork “in the spirit of the 1940s Abstract Expressionists [such as Jackson Pollock or Willem deKooning], to convey the dynamics of rodeo action.”

His paintings, which demonstrate a unique blend of Western and contemporary artistic styles, have been shown at the Eiteljorg Museum of American Indian and Western Art, the Pro Rodeo Hall of Fame, the Museum of the American Cowboy, Boise State University Gallery, the Art Museum of Missoula, and the Yellowstone Art Museum, among many others throughout the southwest and Midwest. Plains Art Museum held Piehl’s first major retrospective August 7 to October 26, 2003.

Walter Piehl, Jr., breezy music: sweetheart of the rodeo, 1991, mixed media on canvas, 48 x 36″

I try to attain precision, refinement, ambiguity, and a sense of the organic through a preoccupation with textural surface.

-George Morrison

George Morrison was inspired by nature. Encouraged by his Chippewa heritage and their philosophy, Morrison believed nature to possess a magical and spiritual vitality. He sought to express this vitality through his art. His paintings and wood collages contain abstract images of trees, rocks, rivers, and sky. A repeating theme in his work is the horizon line, a long-time fascination for the artist. He based his paintings, drawings, wood collages, and sculptures on it.

Morrison painted this piece, Sun and River, in his early years as an artist. It is a perfect example of his style, which features abstract and broad geometric shapes in semi-recognizable forms. The landscape seems to be divided into four horizontal sections: the first section across the bottom is a river, with multi-colored angular and curved shapes; the second is a landscape or possibly a river in connecting lengths of color; the third is a landscape meeting with the horizon line having an intersecting sun’s halo; and the fourth is a skyline with a rose-colored sun in the center.

This painting was purchased by Plains Art Museum in 1991 after the Standing in the Northern Lights: A George Morrison Retrospective exhibition of 1990.

Artist Bio

I never play the role of being an Indian artist. I always just stated the fact that I was a painter, and I happened to be Indian.

-George Morrison

Morrison was born in Chippewa City, near Grand Marais, Minnesota, in 1919. He grew up on the Grand Portage Indian Reservation, and after high school, received loans and support through the Consolidated Chippewa Agency to attend the Minneapolis College of Art Design. There he studied with Frances Greenman and Alexander Masley, who encouraged Morrison to focus on developing his fine art skills. They also introduced him to current trends in modern art, from Bauhaus design principles to the works of Matisse and Picasso.

After graduating in 1943, he received the Vanderlip Traveling Scholarship, which allowed him to travel to New York City. He then joined the Art Students League, an organization that enabled students to practice modern concepts and ideas about art, unlike the rigid academic art institutions. There he studied with the Russian-American artist Morris Kantor. In 1952, Morrison received a Fulbright Scholarship to study abroad. He attended the University of Aix-Marseilles in France and was able to travel to Spain and Italy. Morrison returned to the United States a year later, having received the John Hay Whitney Fellowship, further allowing him to concentrate on creating art.

Morrison taught at many art institutions, both in Minnesota and on the East Coast, including the Minneapolis School of Art, Iowa State College, Cornell University in New York, Pennsylvania Sate University, and the Dayton Art Institute in Ohio. He was offered professorships at both the Rhode Island School of Design and the University of Minnesota.

Although Morrison is often compared to the work of Jackson Pollock, some art historians have continued to overlook Morrison’s work and the many contributions he has made to the art world. Despite this, Morrison’s work was exhibited at many well-known and prestigious museums during his lifetime, including the Minneapolis Institute of Arts and the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, Plains Art Museum in Fargo, the Heard Museum in Phoenix, the Grand Central Modern Gallery, the Touchstone Gallery, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and the Museum of the American Indian all in New York City, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Toledo Museum of Art, the Detroit Institute of Arts, the Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, and many more.

George Morrison passed away on April 17, 2000.

George Morrison, Sun and River, 1949, watercolor and crayon on paper, 15 3/4 x 21″

We must create our own heroes to make us feel good about ourselves. Artists can provide these images.

-Luis Jimenez

Luis A. Jimenez, Jr., known for his large and sleek sculptures, creates works that are studies and celebrations of cultures and legends from both Mexico and the United States. His work explores how political and social events, both historic and present-day, affect everyday people. He often attempts to rethink the “American dream” into Hispanic terms. His sculptures poke fun at American symbols and at the same time they celebrate the strength of the American character.

Jimenez tends to focuses on the myths of the southwest. He uses exaggerated stereotypes in an attempt to parody traditional views of that region. He also uses “high kitsch colors” in order to make his statement even bolder. His simple compositions transform the common man or woman into heroic figures. Strong elements of sexuality are evident in his work, and both men and women are represented with a strong sense of self-assurance and confidence.

Sodbuster is arguably the most well known sculpture in the Fargo/Moorhead area. In 1978, the Fargo Parking Authority applied for and received a National Endowment for the Arts matching grant of $20,000 to help finance a major sculptural piece to be located in downtown Fargo. Luis A. Jimenez, Jr. was the artist chosen by a joint committee of NEA representatives and the Fargo Parking Authority. After extensive research of the region and several preliminary proposals, Jimenez produced Sodbuster. For over 20 years it was located outside on Main Avenue and Broadway. In 1991 the City of Fargo donated the sculpture to Plains Art Museum, as it was decided that the museum was better able to oversee the ongoing care of the sculpture. Sodbuster deteriorated severely after 21 years of braving the North Dakota elements, so in 2002, the sculpture was placed in storage until funding can be raised to repair it.

Sodbuster was created as an homage to the farmers and prairie workers of the Great Plains. In the sculpture, two greatly straining oxen wearing a yoke are dragging a heavy plow forward, with a muscular farmer behind guiding them through the sod. The two, lavender-toned oxen appear as one mass, with underlying tall, green grass adjoined to their bellies. Their bodies are highly textured with exaggerated muscles, bulging veins, bones, and neck hair; displaying trimmed/squared off black horns and gold nose rings. The farmer is an old, white-bearded man wearing a red shirt and jean overalls. He is bent over an old, wooden handle and wheeled plow, with a large swath of sod being plowed through. The two pieces are displayed on a large cement base. With the help of the bright fiberglass and the appearance of enormous strength, the farmer is transformed into a symbol of heroism and Midwestern fortitude. Sodbuster has become a beloved symbol for those in the Fargo/Moorhead region.

Artist Bio

My main concern is creating an American art using symbols and icons. I’m making high art out of low art material. I feel I am a traditional artist working with images and materials that are of my time.

-Luis Jimenez

Luis A. Jimenez, Jr. is best known for bold and vibrant sculptures, because they are created from epoxy and fiberglass in daring colors, often with neon and electric lighting.

Jimenez was born in El Paso, Texas, on July 30, 1940. Jimenez started to show an interest in the art field at a very young age. His father was a signmaker who worked with neon and large-scale materials. Through his father’s business, Jimenez learned that certain symbols and colors attract people and many associations can be made with those symbols.

Choosing to go to school rather than taking over the family business, Jimenez attended the University of Texas from 1959-1964 where he studied art and architecture. From 1964 to 1966, Jimenez attended the Ciudad Universitaria in Mexico. While in Mexico, he delved into his cultural heritage by painting Mexican murals. He then went to New York where he exhibited work and assisted sculptor Seymour Lipton. After living in New York for a time, Jimenez realized the necessity of getting back to his roots and returned home to the southwest. He currently resides in Hondo, New Mexico.

Throughout his career, Jimenez has been commissioned to do public art for several cities including Fargo, Albuquerque, Buffalo, Sacramento, and Oklahoma City.

Jimenez has received over 12 different awards and fellowships during his career as an artist, including the National Council of Art Administration’s Award for Outstanding Commitment to the Field of Art, La Napoule Art Foundation Residency Fellowship in La Napoule, France, the Skowhegan Sculpture Award.

His work has been shown at museums throughout the United States, and his work is part of the permanent collections of the Chicago Art Institute, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the National Museum of American Art and the National Collection of Fine Arts in Washington D.C., the Centro Cultural Arte Contemporaneo in Mexico, Plains Art Museum in Fargo, the North Dakota Museum of Art in Grand Forks, and many more throughout the southwest and Midwest.

Luis Jimenez, Sodbuster, 1980-81, molded fiberglass, epoxy resin, acrylic urethane paint, 60 x 257 x 47″

I admired Manet, Courbet, and Degas. I hated conventional art. I began to live.

-Mary Cassat

Although Mary Cassatt is associated with Impressionists, her work was often very different from her peers. Cassatt focused on people, not landscapes, and hoped to capture intimate and subtle details in relationships. Many of her most famous paintings feature a mother and child, and these pieces clearly portray maternal love. The hands of the two figures are often clasped, creating a sense of both emotional and physical closeness. Cassatt also mastered printmaking and gained much recognition for her prints. She used techniques inspired by traditional Japanese prints, like the use of contrasting patterns, a tilted perspective, and cropped subjects. In all of her work, Cassatt tended to use solid lines and clear colors, setting her work apart from the styles of the other Impressionists.

This piece is one of Cassatt’s drypoint etchings, in which she drew directly and irreversibly on the plate with a diamond or ruby-pointed stencil or stylus. The process gives the work the subtle and graceful lines of a pencil sketch. This etching features a little girl wearing a large-brimmed hat. The girl appears to be the model Margot, one of the “pretty little girls with a pretty name” Cassatt so frequently portrayed during this period, and was most likely done in 1902. It was probably a study or print to go along with the pastel Child in Orange Dress, 1902, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, or the pastel Margot in Blue, 1902, the Walters Art Gallery at Baltimore, MD.

Dr. Timothy Y.C. Choy of Moorhead donated this piece to Plains Art Museum in 1979.

Artist Bio

There are two ways for a painter: the broad and easy one, or the narrow and hard one.

-Mary Cassat

Mary Cassatt is one of the most popular American artists and is considered by many scholars to be a pioneer for women everywhere.

Mary Cassatt was born in Allegheny City, Pennsylvania on May 22, 1894. Her prominent family moved to Philadelphia when she was 5. Her parents revered French culture and when Mary was just 7 they moved to France for 4 years. In 1860, she enrolled in the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and attended until 1865. She yearned to study in France, where fine art was more abundant. Although she couldn’t apply to L’Academie in France because she was a woman, she was able to take private lessons, and studied under Benjamin Constant from 1866-1869. She also studied briefly at the Royal Academy in Parma, Italy in 1872. Her training consisted of the traditional practice of copying ancient sculpture and Renaissance works, although she was also influenced by more contemporary artists such as Velazquez, Goya, Degas, Manet, and Courbet.

Cassatt continued to travel and study throughout Europe until she finally settled in France in 1874. Here she developed a close friendship with artist Degas. She was soon part of a circle of artists known as the Impressionists. While many Impressionists concentrated on painting landscapes, Cassatt’s traditional training influenced her to feature people instead of landscapes, and she strove to capture subtle relationships between the subjects of her work. She was invited to exhibit with the “Independents” and did so until 1886.

In 1874, the Paris Salon accepted one of her original compositions for exhibition, and continued to do so throughout Cassatt’s career. In 1891, she was given her first solo exhibition in Paris, where 10 color prints, 2 paintings, and 2 pastel drawings were displayed. Only two years later over 98 of her pieces were exhibited! In 1895, her show traveled to New York City, without the same success it had received in Europe. However, a mural she was commissioned to do for the Woman’s Building at the Chicago World’s Fair was extremely well liked.

Not only did Cassatt create important works of art, but her social position allowed her to work as an art collector and buyer for her wealthy friends. She often purchased pieces from her artist friends if they were struggling financially. She was instrumental in promoting the spread of Impressionist art to the United States.

Tragically, Cassatt lost her eyesight in the last years of her life and was no longer able to paint or make prints. She died in her Chateau Beaufreshe, France in 1926.

Although Cassatt was an American, she spent most of her life in France and gained her fame and success in Europe. She commented that she was disappointed in her fellow Americans for not respecting her work as much as many Europeans did. Not until after her death did she become a truly celebrated American artist. Her artwork is owned by museums throughout the world, including the Musee d’Orsay in Paris, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C., and the Art Institute of Chicago, and many others, including Plains Art Museum.

Mary Cassatt, Margo Wearing a Bonnet, (c. 1902), drypoint etching, 6 1/2 x 9 1/2″

In the last couple of years, along with my political and social activism, I have taken time to step back from the hype of the art market. I’m constantly in the process of aesthetic re-evaluation. My artistic style is in a state of flux; it continues to broaden.

-David P. Bradley

David P. Bradley is known for his paintings and sculptures that often convey a political message concerning Native Americans. He has been able to create a unique narrative folk style in his art, and although many of his pieces are overtly political, he does cover a wide range of topics and artistic styles. Bradley often parodies art historical or “pop culture” icons, such as the Mona Lisa. This could be seen in his Madonna of the White Earth Reservation, 1982.

This piece, Pow-Wow Princess in the Process of Acculturation, is yet another parody based on the Mona Lisa. This is evident in the way the woman is posed and in the background. As with most of Bradley’s works, this is a narrative painting, which presents a story. In the picture, a seated woman is wearing traditional garments along with a pageant banner reading “Miss Indian USA.” This refers to the contemporary practices of selecting princesses for Pow-Wow celebrations and the Miss Indian USA contest. Although she is dressed in a traditional outfit that consists of a purple wool dress adorned with elk teeth, a green shoulder blanket wrap, and a breaded crown with an eagle feather design, some aspects of her dress are completely untraditional. Her hands, which have purple painted nails, are crossed and in one she holds a cigarette. While tobacco represents honesty in the American Indian tradition, it seems odd when it is in the form of a cigarette. On her wrist, she wears an End of the Trail watch, a “pop culture” icon of the time. Again this is contradictory, because traditionally Native Americans did not keep time and instead measured time through a heartbeat or the moon. The background consists of two parts: a typical southwestern scene with a canyon, rock formations, deserts; and on the other side a large grouping of teepees. This scene is taken from an 1863 photograph of the Santee Sioux who were incarcerated at Fort Snelling during the winter, following the Sioux uprising of 1862 in Mankato, Minnesota. Bradley uses other artistic devices that regularly appear in his works: the asphalt highway, a small bird, a buffalo skull, and the ever-present dollar bill.

Plains Art Museum purchased this piece in 1991 after the Restless Native exhibition held from April 26 to June 30, 1991, at the Museum.

Artist Bio

To be an artist from the Indian world carries with it certain responsibilities.. We have an opportunity to promote Indian truths and at the same time help dispel the myths and stereotypes that are projected upon us.. I consider myself an at-large representative and advocate of the Chippewa people and American Indians in general. It is a responsibility which I do not take lightly.

-David P. Bradley

David P. Bradley has played a significant role not only in the advancement of Indian art, but also in the struggle for Native American rights.

Bradley was born in Eureka, California on March 8, 1954, yet spent most of his childhood in Minneapolis and on the White Earth Ojibwe Reservation in Chippewa, Minnesota. He spent two years at the University of St. Thomas in Minnesota before taking a break from school and joining the Peace Corps. He lived for the better part of two years in Guatemala with Mayan Indians and learned a new life outlook, “an experience with essentials,” that allowed him to better understand his heritage and “changed him forever.” After returning from the Peace Corps, he was drawn to the Southwest and attended the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, where he graduated first in his class with a Bachelor’s degree in Fine Arts. He also studied at the University of Arizona and the College of Santa Fe. He recently returned to the Institute of American Indian Arts as a guest artist and instructor.

Bradley has called his life and his art a symbolic vision quest. His work often expresses his philosophical and political ideas. Through his art he continues to campaign against American Indian stereotypes and the exploitation of Native art. He helped lead a legal campaign against fraudulent artists claiming to be of First Nations origin. He tries to encourage young Indian artists to stay away from the mass commercialized production of Native American artifacts. As a member of the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe, Bradley strongly believes that Indians need to reclaim their own identity and work politically to assure they will survive as a distinct culture. He fights for this both politically and artistically.

Bradley has received numerous awards and fellowships, including recognition as the only artist to win the top awards in both the Fine Art categories of painting and sculpture at the Santa Fe Indian Market. He was also awarded the Southwestern Association of Indian Art Fellowship in 1980 and the Minnesota Chippewa Art Award for Merit in Art in 1979, among several others.

He has also been featured in several publications, including the New York Times and Who’s Who in American Art in 1982, Artspace Magazine in 1987 and many others, as well as television and radio shows.

Bradley has exhibited his work throughout the nation, including the Plains Indian Museum in Wyoming, the Heard Museum in Phoenix, Plains Art Museum in Fargo, the Museum of Fine Arts and the Armory for the Arts in Santa Fe, the Southwest Museum in Los Angeles, the North Dakota Museum of Art in Grand Forks, the Smithsonian Institute in Washington DC, the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, the American Indian Art Invitational in Lima, Peru, and many others. His work is in the permanent collections of various museums throughout the United States, especially in the southwest.

David P. Bradley, Pow-Wow Princess in the Process of Acculturation, 1990, acrylic on canvas, 48 x 36″