Artwork copyright Rick Bartow. Photo courtesy of the artist.

Big Bear, 2001

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

Location: West Seattle High School, Seattle

ABOUT THE ARTWORK

Artist Rick Bartow, widely celebrated for his stirring and expressive artworks, combined Native American and contemporary artistic traditions to evoke transformative and spiritual images. Using abstract, gestural forms, Big Bear combines multiple colors to depict an emotive and impactful figure of a bear.

This artwork was acquired for the State Art Collection in partnership with Seattle School District.

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 Vietnam 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.