Against Instinct

1989

Rick Bartow

(Enrolled member of the Mad River Band of Wiyot Tribe, 1946–2016)

Culture

America

Medium

pastel with graphite on coated pastel paper

Measurements

Sheet: 142.2 x 121.9 cm (56 x 48 in.); Framed: 167.6 x 137.2 cm (66 x 54 in.)

Credit Line

Severance and Greta Millikin Trust 2024.61

This artwork is known to be under copyright.

Location

101A Prints & Drawings

Did You Know?

Rick Bartow reflected that that art “allowed [him] to speak of [his] firsthand experience. It allowed [him] to have a lineage and create a statement that’s real.”

Description

Contemporary Indigenous artist Rick Bartow drew from an expansive range of references to create paintings, drawings, and prints that address themes of transformation. A Vietnam veteran and an enrolled member of the Mad River Band of Wiyot Indians in Oregon, Bartow took up imagery related to the boundaries between humans and animals and between the bodily and the spiritual. In this drawing, he used a combination of media to depict a hybrid creature between dog and human. Dogs were a subject that recurred throughout Bartow’s work, and he saw in them some of his own personality traits.