{"id":36486,"date":"2023-01-03T09:47:21","date_gmt":"2023-01-03T16:47:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/these-portraits-at-denvers-clyfford-still-museum-are-reuniting-native-people-with-their-ancestors-and-forging-new-bonds\/"},"modified":"2023-01-03T16:47:21","modified_gmt":"2023-01-03T16:47:21","slug":"these-portraits-at-denvers-clyfford-still-museum-are-reuniting-native-people-with-their","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/these-portraits-at-denvers-clyfford-still-museum-are-reuniting-native-people-with-their\/","title":{"rendered":"These portraits at Denver\u2019s Clyfford Still Museum are reuniting Native people with their ancestors \u2013 and forging new bonds"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"In
In 1937, the artist Clyfford Still traveled to Nespelem, Washington and founded an artist colony on the homeland of the Colville Confederated Tribes, and created portraits of Native people who lived on the land. Now, as part of the Clyfford Still Museum\u2019s 10th anniversary, a special exhibition of the portraits and other works is forging a new relationship between the museum and tribal communities in Washington.<\/span>Hart Van Denburg\/CPR News<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Bailey Placzek<\/a> will never forget the look on one woman\u2019s face \u2013 the first time she saw her grandfather as a young man.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe just immediately broke down,\u201d said Placzek, an associate curator at the Clyfford Still Museum in Denver. \u201cIt made me tear up because it was just such a human emotional response, seeing the face of your grandfather. She just said, \u2018I\u2019m sorry, it\u2019s just his face. Seeing him as a young man.\u2019 It was such a touching moment.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the 1930s on the Colville Reservation in Washington, not many people had cameras.<\/p>\n

\"Portraits
Portraits and other moments drawn by artist Clifford Still. In 1937, Still traveled to Nespelem, Washington and founded an artist colony on the homeland of the Colville Confederated Tribes, and created portraits of Native people who lived on the land. Now, as part of the Still Museum\u2019s 10th anniversary, a special exhibition of the portraits and other works is forging a new relationship between the museum and tribal communities in Washington.<\/span>Hart Van Denburg\/CPR News<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"In
In 1937, the artist Clyfford Still traveled to Nespelem, Washington and founded an artist colony on the homeland of the Colville Confederated Tribes, and created portraits of Native people who lived on the land. Now, as part of the Clyfford Still Museum\u2019s 10th anniversary, a special exhibition of the portraits and other works is forging a new relationship between the museum and tribal communities in Washington.<\/span>Hart Van Denburg\/CPR News<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

\u201cIt was an era that everyone was in \u2013 the Great Depression at that time, and it was particularly challenging for tribal communities,\u201d said Michael Holloman<\/a>, an associate professor in the Department of Fine Arts at Washington State University in Pullman, Washington. \u201cWhen we think about that, it wasn\u2019t just tribal communities, but specifically for those individuals, not everyone had access or had a camera. So having images of your relatives from that period was something that was pretty remarkable.\u201d<\/p>\n

So in 1937, the artist Clyfford Still traveled to Nespelem, Washington and founded an artist colony<\/a> on the homeland of the Colville Confederated Tribes. As part of Still\u2019s work there, he created portraits of Native people who lived on the land.<\/p>\n

Now, as part of the Clyfford Still Museum\u2019s 10th anniversary, a special exhibition of the portraits and other works is forging a new relationship between the museum and tribal communities in Washington.<\/p>\n

\"In
In 1937, the artist Clyfford Still founded an artist colony on the homeland of the Colville Confederated Tribes, and created portraits of Native people who lived on the land. The works on paper are now on display at the Still Museum in Denver, among some of the more avant grade work he created later in life.<\/span>Hart Van Denburg\/CPR News<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Clyfford Still<\/a> was a major American painter best known as a leader of the Abstract Expressionist<\/a> movement. Still\u2019s transition to entirely abstract painting in the middle of the 1940s preceded and impacted his contemporaries\u2019 transition to nonrepresentational art. For some, his work using great fields of color may not hint that he had deep relationships with communities and individuals.<\/p>\n

The current exhibition \u2013 You Select: A Community Curated Exhibition<\/a> \u2013 endeavors to change that mindset.<\/p>\n

Holloman, himself a member of the Colville Confederated tribes, worked with the museum curators to bring this part of the exhibition to life.<\/p>\n

Holloman said it was known that Clyfford Still was in Nespelem, at the agency on the Colville Indian Reservation as part of the art colony. But it wasn\u2019t known that images of Clyfford Still\u2019s work from that period were preserved.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were other portraits of the different individuals that had sat, for the people that painted there, but none of Clyfford Still\u2019s work was available,\u201d Holloman said. \u201cAfter they opened the Clyfford Still Museum there in Denver, and these drawings, portraits were revealed from his collections, \u2026 It was very wonderful, I think, because it placed him there with these individuals.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"In
In 1937, the artist Clyfford Still traveled to Nespelem, Washington and founded an artist colony on the homeland of the Colville Confederated Tribes, and created portraits of Native people who lived on the land. Now, as part of the Clyfford Still Museum\u2019s 10th anniversary, a special exhibition of the portraits and other works is forging a new relationship between the museum and tribal communities in Washington.<\/span>Hart Van Denburg\/CPR News<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The pieces show Still\u2019s bond with the community and the people he depicts. And of them, three portraits on display \u2013 graphite drawings \u2013 prompted a search for the subjects\u2019 descendants.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo we had a name for each one of these individuals. And, um, we, you know, presented that to Michael and said, \u2018You know, how would we go about getting in touch with these families?\u2019\u201d Placzek said.<\/p>\n

Michael Holloman went to work, eventually connecting museum officials with representatives from the Colville Confederated Tribes.<\/p>\n

Placzek \u2013 who is also the catalogue raisonn\u00e9 research and project manager for the Clyfford Still Museu<\/a>m \u2013 and Erin Schafer, an associate archivist at the museum, traveled to meet the tribal community with Holloman in an open house setting. Eventually, the museum and the tribes\u2019 representatives found descendants for the people in the portraits.<\/p>\n

\u201cI remember my grandpa sitting in his chair as I stood behind him watching our favorite show, Superman,\u201d said one quote on display at the exhibit from one of those family members. \u201cIt was one of those old black and white TVs with long antennas back then. We lived very modestly but wanted for nothing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou Select: A Community-Curated Exhibition\u201d is on view at the Clyfford Still Museum in Denver through Feb. 12, 2023, and a recording of the livestreamed program \u201cCritical Communities: Colville Confederated Tribes and the Museum\u201d is available on the museum\u2019s website.<\/a><\/p>\n

To read more stories from Colorado Public Radio, visit www.cpr.org<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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