Line and Lineage: New Work by Rick Bartow and University of Oregon Students and Alumni

Line and Lineage: New Work by Rick Bartow and University of Oregon Students and Alumni

September 30, 2015 to January 24, 2016

Printmaking fits fluidly into visionary Oregon artist Rick Bartow’s larger body of work, which includes pastel and graphite drawing, acrylic painting, and wood and mixed-media sculpture. Bartow acknowledges his position as just one mark-maker in the long lineage of artists and storytellers that dates back to the beginning of humanity. He often draws from the heritage of his paternal family, members of the Wiyot tribe of Northern California, and blends their likenesses and histories with the elements of self-portraiture that characterize his larger body of work. The 10 combinations of monotype, drypoint, and chine-collé included in this exhibition were created by Bartow in collaboration with Mika Boyd, printmaking/fibers studio technician in the Department of Art, for the JSMA permanent collection during Spring 2015. University of Oregon students were invited to observe Bartow’s process over a series of printmaking sessions and create their own works in response during the Spring and Summer terms under the guidance of Charlene Liu, associate professor, and printmaking coordinator, Bryan Putnam, adjunct instructor in printmaking, and other faculty in the Department of Art.

This project and a 30-minute documentary about the prints’ creation were generously funded by a Ford Family Foundation Exhibition and Documentation Support grant and Ballinger Endowment funds. The JSMA’s retrospective exhibition, Rick Bartow: Things You Know But Cannot Explain, is now traveling and will be exhibited at the following venues through 2018: Museum of Contemporary Native Arts, IAIA, Santa Fe; The Heard Museum, Phoenix; WSU Museum of Art, Pullman; and the Autry National Center, Los Angeles.