The internationally recognized artist's work is as provocative as the names he gives each art piece, titles such as, “Good-bye Norma Jean, The Chief is Dead,” or “I Will Never Be the Same When I Leave My Father's Lodge,” or “Don't (mess) With a Boy Named Sue.”
On Tuesday, Longfish stood inside the Montana Museum of Art and Culture at the University of Montana where two gallery halls recognize his prominent role in the contemporary Native American art movement. He looked at his “Sue” painting from which a tough-and-hard warrior stares back. “He's like somebody I wouldn't want to meet in an alley,” Longfish said. “It would be like, OK, see you later.”
The Seneca and Tuscarora artist studied painting, sculpture and film at the Art Institute of Chicago, where he graduated in 1972. He arrived in Missoula the same year to become director of the University of Montana Graduate Program in American Indian Art. He stayed until 1973. The program ended the same year. It was unique then and has never been duplicated.
The UM program attracted evolving Native American artists from throughout the country. Longfish was able to influence emerging artists, many who have led successful art careers. The professor encouraged students to break away from stereotypes in their art and to experiment with a range of styles and techniques.
Personally, he likes glitter.
“Formally his work is very engaging,” said Ted Hughes, a UM art graduate student. “He uses all these vivid colors. They are organized in a pleasing manner. He uses triangles, squares and circles. Š He uses bold strokes.”
And he succeeds at bridging the spiritual subject matter of Native America, and the warrior culture, with the European tradition of high modernist painting in the form of abstract expressionism, Hughes said.
After leaving Montana, Longfish spent the next 30 years as a professor of Historical and Contemporary Native Arts at the University of California at Davis where he also served as the university's director of the Carl Gorman Museum from 1974-96. As a painter, he has led Native art trends and raised the stature of the contemporary Indian art movement. His work is collected in major U.S. museums, including the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C., the Cleveland Museum of Art and the Heard Museum in Phoenix.
Longfish continues to be bold and experiment.
Today, he is drawn toward text. The more words he uses, the less he relies on a multicolored palette. Sometimes he looks at his old work and wonders, “Who the hell painted that?” he said. “What I'm doing is becoming more clear and evident in my painting. Boom, there it is.”
His work is a testament to the versatility he has long taught to students.
“It's a mixture of humor and serious subject matter,” said Manuela Well-Off-Man, Montana Museum of Art and Culture curator, who became aware of Longfish's work when she lived in Germany. She said she admires how his style and use of iconography inspire an open dialogue among art viewers.
His message is political and very approachable. “It's not politically-correct art,” said Well-Off-Man. “It's not pointing a finger.”
One of his works of art depicts a photo of Longfish standing below Chicago skyscrapers. The black-and-white image is imprinted with stacked red-lettered words that read: “Tribal. Seneca. Warrior. Artist. Healer.”
The image is meant to remind people that Natives are very much a part of contemporary culture. Too often, he said, people look at an Indian and fall into a stereotypical greeting. They want to call him “chief,” he said. “It's hard for them to say hello to you in the present time. It's like the only way they can connect to you is to go into the past.”
They grapple with reality: “You survived?”
Gallery talk
Artist George Longfish discusses his artwork Thursday, April 5, at 6 p.m. at the Meloy Gallery, Montana Museum of Art and Culture, University of Montana. An artist's reception is also scheduled the same day from 5-7 p.m.
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