Artwork copyright Rick Bartow. Photo courtesy of Washington State Arts Commission, 2017.

Owl, 1990

Rick Bartow
(American | Wiyot, born 1946, died 2016)

Location: Washington State Arts Commission, Mount Vernon

ABOUT THE ARTWORK

Owl is part of artist Rick Bartow's series of powerful self-portraits. It shows the artist's dual identities in a state of metamorphosis. Bartow combined Native American and contemporary art traditions to show us transformative and spiritual figures.

This drawing is part of a series of artworks created by Rick Bartow for the collection "Who We Are: Autobiographies in Art." The series was commissioned by the Washington State Arts Commission in partnership with the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction in 1990.

This artwork was acquired for the State Art Collection in partnership with Who We Are: Autobiographies in Art Collection.

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Celebrated Native American Wiyot artist Rick Bartow (1946-2016) is known for his expressive artworks about transformation, spiritual figures, and self-portraits. He often contrasted the physical and spiritual existence, showing figures in transformation between the human and animal worlds. He is an important leader in contemporary Native American art.

Bartow was born and lived most of his life on the Oregon coast in Newport. He graduated from Western Oregon State College with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Secondary Art Education in 1969. He was drafted into the U.S. Army and served in the Vietnam War from 1969–1971 as a teletype operator, returning home with post-traumatic stress disorder. Bartow was also a life-long musician and songwriter, and an enrolled member of the Mad River Band of Wiyot Indians (Northern California). His art can be found in over a hundred collections and museums. A pair of monumental sculptures by Bartow stand outside of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian in Washington D.C.