Quartet of painters give voice to Native American struggle

By Jeff Britton | SDUN Art Critic

The Mingei International Museum in Balboa Park is a folk art museum, featuring baskets, utensils, pottery and such, some of which is on display in the current exhibit “In Their Own Words: Classic and Contemporary Native American Art.” But this exhibit takes a contemporary approach to folk, showcasing four modern Native American artists, all from California and each excellent in his or her genre.

An appropriately named dazzler blanket welcomes you to the exhibit, its zig-zag pattern a locomotive treat for the eyes; while, nearby, a more conventional saddle blanket suggests the equine heart of Native American culture. But the real attractions are the splashy paintings by living artists such as Robert L. Freeman, Catherine Nelson-Rodriguez, L. Frank and Billy Soza Warsoldier.

Freeman, a self-taught artist who grew up on reservations in Rincon, Calif., and Crow Creek, S.D., designed the State of California Commemorative seal embedded on the steps of our state capitol, and the elegant pointillist style that emerges from his vivid palette is reminiscent of Picasso’s cubism.

A row of Freeman’s acrylics brightens the gallery, appealingly depicting traditional native themes with contemporary verve. “Brute Warrior” and “Mermaid’s Brother,” the former on paper and the latter on a board, relate timeless tales of triumph in hard times, while along adjoining walls his style becomes more refined and realistic. Faces seem to emerge from the landscape in “Moonlight Serenade,” while “Water Buffalo” celebrates nature on land and sea and “All the people in the world” features an endless line of faces, fronted, presumably, by the tree of life. “Lady in Waiting” is a whimsical stereotype of a tipsy, sexy woman outside her teepee, her TV visible from its opening and empty beer cans strewn on the ground.

Another autodidact in the exhibit is Catherine Nelson-Rodriguez, who, after growing up on four different California reservations, settled on the La Jolla Reservation.

In her struggle to make sense of her life, Nelson-Rodriguez’s work crosses the boundaries of comfort, touching on issues such as womanhood and mental illness. “Manic,” for instance, asserts that one has no control over one’s own life and contains a bizarre little story typed on a frenetic, multi-colored yet gorgeous
background, while “Blue Anger” shows a woman in shades of black and blue screaming out against a blood-red backdrop. That same black and blue also features in Nelson-Rodriguez’s other paintings, such as “Insanity” and “Chemical Imbalance.” Most startling and revealing is her self portrait, titled “Blue Me.” (She also has happier painting so don’t be concerned!)

A graduate of several art schools, L. Frank speaks for the disenfranchised through art. Wolves, which jump out from the walls in bright reds and oranges, the acrylic paint seeming to shimmer and howl, are a favorite motif.

Perhaps the exhibit’s pièce de résistance, however, are the works of Billy Soza Warsoldier, who favors very black backgrounds on which oil colors applied with a palette knife or straight from the tube stand out. One series is a tribute to the Gaan spirit of his Apache culture, illustrating ceremonial dancers in various moods, and his diptych, “Mountain Spirit at Night with Campfire,” is both surreal and serene. Yet his most colorful achievement is the series he finished during a stint in prison, when, restricted to ink, pencil and paper, he created two gorgeous explosions of color in contrast to two subdued, mostly black and white, drawings. The series, an outlet for his anger due to injustices endured by his people, is arresting and bold.

At the end of the show is a classic belt depicting five Arctic shamans with spirit helpers in the act of transformation, a process all too familiar to Native Americans over the centuries.

This quartet of artists gives voice to the Native American struggle, each in his or her own way. The exhibit continues through Sept. 5. At the Mingei International Museum, 1439 El Prado, Balboa Park. For more information, call (619) 239-0003 or visit mingei.org.