“Untitled,” by the late Harry Whitehorse, one of the better-known artists in the show.
At a glance, the painting looks like many found hanging innocuously over sofas in living rooms throughout the Midwest. A pair of whitetail deer — a buck and doe — are captured in a wintery landscape framed by limestone escarpments that could represent Wisconsin’s Driftless Region, the scene’s long shadows indicating either the start or end of the animals’ day.
Look more closely at “Untitled,” a 1985 oil-on-canvas work by the late Harry Whitehorse, and you will see how the artist’s use of pointillism, the impressionist technique of painting with distinct color dots, brings the sun-soaked image to life. Viewers might become transfixed by the buck’s stare, which reads as if unwanted visitors have interrupted his respite.
“Untitled” is one of 15 pieces by 14 Native American artists that make up Ho-Chunk Art: Sharing Our Sacred Voice Through Art, on display at Overture Center’s Playhouse Gallery through Jan. 5. The artists’ approaches range from traditional to modern in multiple mediums, according to Melanie Tallmadge Sainz, the artist, educator and Ho-Chunk Nation member who curated the exhibit.
“We’re committed to our culture,” says Sainz, whose chosen medium is porcupine quills, a traditional approach pre-dating European influences. “Some people think Native American art has to be all feathers and beads, but this exhibit features a wider range.”
In addition to Whitehorse, purportedly born in a wigwam near the Indian Mission in Black River Falls in 1927 and proprietor of Chief Auto Body in Monona for 40 years, the exhibit’s other superstar is the late Truman Lowe, a former fine arts professor at UW-Madison who also served as curator of the Smithsonian’s Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C. The other artists are relatively unknown, with several exhibiting publicly for the first time.
Traditional works are among the exhibit’s most compelling. Levi and Verna Blackdeer’s 2016 “Smoked Art Ensemble,” for example, consists of a purse and wall-hanging made from deer skin that’s been “brain-tanned,” a traditional and time-consuming application of an emulsified solution of animal brain matter and water. Oils from the brain create a hide that is much more supple and absorbent, which is then smoked to create reverse images from stencils affixed to the hide prior to smoking.
On the contemporary side, Henry Payer’s 2018 “Oil. Water. Land. Spirit.” uses motor oil, oil paint, oil paste and spray paint on canvas to create an earth-toned abstract with bright lines vertically framing faint images of spirit animals over horizontal lines that repeat the word “land” more than two dozen times. The exhibit also features Rita Kingswan’s 2019 “Love Sustained Beaded Ensemble,” beautifully crafted earrings and hair ties; Simone Brown’s 2017 “Homp Hamani” silk applique; and a host of other basketry, beadwork, bracelets and imagery.
“There are 574 legally recognized tribes in the U.S., although as Indigenous people we know there are many more,” Sainz says. “Each nation has its own set of design aesthetics that show exactly who we are, where we live, and our tribal affiliation.”
