Adkins Collection provides view of Western, American Indian art
Adkins Collection provides view of Western, American Indian art
Comments
0
By John Brandenburg
Published: March 7, 2008
NORMAN — A new collection invites us into the magic world of the Taos, Santa Fe and other Western and American Indian artists — like the view of the New Mexico landscape through a car window in a work by Victor Higgins.
Advertisement
An oil by Ernest L. Blumenschein (1874-1960) demonstrates not only the "strength of the earth,” but the power of erosion and geologic forces, as well as the interplay of light and shadow, in the "Rio Grande Gorge Near Taos.”
Many other works in the collection are almost equally expressive and intriguing.
"A Navajo Chief,” standing on a hillside, wearing a windblown red robe, has an almost ghostly presence, in an outstanding watercolor by William Robinson Leigh (1866-1955).
Sun lights up the "Land of the White Mesas” for Maynard Dixon (1875-1946), and a lightning bolt helps Peter Hurd (1904-1984) get across the romance of the Old West in his oil of "The Escape of Billy the Kid.”
The whole is greater than the sum of the parts in an eccentric 1965 oil by Dorothy Brett (1883-1976) of a circle of women on horseback, wearing multi-colored robes, receiving the "Blessing of the Mares.”
Santa Clara, Calif., artist Helen Hardin (1943-1984) relies on stylization and vivid colors to convey her "Vision of a Ghost Dance.”
Almost equally stylized is a casein painting of mythic birds enjoying a "Mealtime on the Mesa” by a second Santa Clara artist, Pablita Velarde (1918-2006).
By contrast, there is something disconsolate and almost bedraggled about the subject of a 1972 blue ink sketch of an "Indian and Tipi” by Kiowa/Comanche artist T. C. Cannon (1946-1978).
The exhibit is highly recommended during its run through December 2008 at the OU museum.
— John Brandenburg
Related Topics:
Special Interest Groups, Native American Issues

Prev


Something to say about this topic? Submit a Letter to the Editor online
Thank you for joining our conversations on newsok. We encourage your discussions but ask that you stay within the bounds of our terms and conditions. Please help us by reporting comments that violate these guidelines. To review our rules of engagement, go to Commenting and posting policy.
Log in below or sign up (it's free).