David Bradley needed Santa Fe and Santa Fe needed David Bradley.
He couldve gone anywhere, any place in Indian country, any city
or big art market town in the nation but sometimes you cant
pass up the perfect fiteven if you're making it fit whether
they like it or not. And everyone liked it, Natives and non-Natives
loved his humor and criticisms, if you thought you were somebody then
you should be in one of his paintings. Davids paintings are
narratives, a welcome to and a tour through
Indian country.
Valerie Verzuh, who curated the show and edited the excellent catalog/book
for MIACthe Museum of Indian Art and Culturesays that
in Bradley's creative world, there is no exact time, no beginning,
no end, all time and all places come together in his artwork. As you
view his pieces, anyone and everyone, all our Native heroes are present,
all supporters, and all antagonists are there to work out what is
real and what is imaginary.
The imaginary is what ties this all together, because the critique
of the Native place in American history and society is about the
struggle people have with our realities versus the imaginary, the
fantasies, and the stereotypes. Non-Natives (and Natives too) have
these narratives ingrained and embedded in our thinking; so as Bucky
Fuller said, you cant change the present with the same paradigm,
so change the paradigm. Thats what Bradley does, he creates
and draws you into these new and different narratives where you
get to see the Native side of things real, things made up, and things
as they should be. Bradley says his art "portrays human conditions
and personal relationships that would be too controversial in another
form." He is hard, cutting, biting, but also gentle, tender
and funny; he uses modern mixed media to tell tragic tales of Native
Historybut the paintings take you mystical places that make
sense out of absurdity.
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David
Bradley, 'Sleeping Indian.' Image courtesy Wheelwright Museum
of the American Indian, Santa Fe, NM.
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The exhibit and book are divided into personal experiences,
political and social activism, the Santa Fe Art scene in his End
of the Trail imagery, and the homages to iconic art masterpieces
in which he deconstructs their meanings then reconstructs them into
Native narratives. Other artists have also utilized this, copying
the masters, but you always go back to see how David did it as a
reference. "My art suggests and comments on situations but
doesnt resolve them," he says. "Each viewer brings
something of their own life experiences to it, and their interpretations
are often as valid as mine." There are keys and clues, images
and characters that he uses as a personal vocabulary: Tonto and
the Lone Ranger, potsherds and petroglyphs, coyote, money, feathers,
blue birds and electrical plugs.
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David
Bradley, 'Lone Ranger and Tonto Revisited.'
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David
Bradley, 'Lone Ranger and Tonto Revisited' (detail).
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Bradley was born to a Minnesota Chippewa mother and an Anglo
father in 1954; at a young age he and his sister were adopted out
to an Anglo family and he did not re-connect with his family and
people until his early 20s. Always interested in art and music,
he joined the Peace Corps, going to the Dominican Republic and Guatemala
from 1975-77. He graduated from the Institute of American Indian
Art in 1979 and got his MFA from the College of Santa Fe in 1980.
He joined the Elaine Horwitch Galleries, which was the center of
contemporary art back in that heyday of that Santa Fe art scene.
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David
Bradley, 'Lone Ranger and Tonto.'
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Because of his background, tribal and cultural identity became
important to him, as did the political struggle to fight for all
Native people and their causes. He used AIM, Wounded Knee, Bering
Straits Theory, Native Treaties and Indian stereotypes in his collages,
paintings and sculptures, all the usual suspects and heroes. Many
artists today were influenced by how Bradley used these political
images. When he got to Santa Fe, he ran into some opposition from
wannabe Indian Artists and their galleries and he led several fights
against all manner of exploitation, commercialization and commodification.
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David
Bradley, 'Harvest Moon.'
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His critique of Santa Fe and the Native Art scene came from
his love of the land and its people. In his statement he said he
that New Mexico had an immediate impact on me and I knew I
would live the rest of my life here. He married into a Jemez
Pueblo family and his family now lives near the little art/hippie/biker
town of Madrid, outside Santa Fe. Every time a political issue would
surface, all the Indian artists would say, Wheres Bradley?
and the more he became a no-show, we all thought he was mellowing
out. As it turns out, he revealed that he has amyotrophic
lateral sclerosis (ALS), which has affected his movement, his work
and life. But he attended the opening to meet all his old friends,
clients and supporters, and he has new work as well. The piece that
says it all is, Pueblo Feast Day 1984/Full Circle 2014,
a repeat of an early image in the same style, but now it just takes
him longer to paint. The guests sitting at the Pueblo Feast table
include American Culture icons and they are invited into Indian
Country to sit and share as equals, but they are visitors, a minority
inside Indian Country, not in charge and beholden to the Natives
as guests.
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David
Bradley, 'Pow Wow Princess, Southwest.'
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There are close to 40 pieces in the show and many, many more
in the catalog/book. If youve never seen Bradleys work
its quite a visual treat, colors and lines vibrating off the
walls. Theyre all there, the Sleeping Indian, Super Indian,
American Indian Gothic, Pow Wow Princess, Indian Market, Godzilla
vs Zozobra, El Farol nightclub, the End of the Santa Fe Trail, Mankato
and Wounded Knee, all the Indian artists, art collectors, gallery
owners, local characters and legends. Even the people he critiques
want to be in the paintings, everyone wanted to be in one, as did
the collectors and patrons who commissioned him to commemorate their
lives or accomplishments. There are also sculptures, mostly bronzes
and the best are of women, love and tenderness.
MIAC has done an excellent job in honoring David Bradley and
his contributions to Santa Fe and Native Art. It may be a legacy
show and the book will be around a long time, but David is still
working, still painting, still funny, still pointed, still ironic,
still iconic.
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David
Bradley, 'End of the Trail.'
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David
Bradley, 'End of the Trail' (detail).
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David
Bradley, 'Hopi Maidens.'
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David
Bradley, 'The Passage.'
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