Artist Tammy Garcia’s ancestry can be traced back more than 1,000 years. As inhabitants of the Puye Cliff Dwellings, her Native American ancestors eventually gave rise to the people of the Santa Clara Pueblo, one of the nineteen pueblos in New Mexico today. Well-known for their black and red pottery, Garcia’s great-grandmother Christina Naranjo was amongst the potters who helped foster Pueblo Santa Clara’s noteworthy reputation.
Accordingly, within Garcia’s art, one can detect traditional Native American influences. However, Garcia--sometimes boldly, sometimes quietly--brings a decidedly modern twist to her work. When it comes to her pottery, her latest innovations have included the addition of lids, as well as the use of semi-precious stones as embellishments. Her keen artistic perspective is singular enough to have drawn a wide array of admirers. During her annual show in Santa Fe, hundreds of people, eager to acquire one of her pieces, must enter a lottery just to be eligible to purchase the eight or ten available artifacts.
After this weekend, no doubt, Garcia’s popularity will expand even more.
As a participant in the Autry National Center’s exhibit “Masters of the American West Fine Art Exhibition and Sale”, Garcia’s work, along with that of seventy-five other artists, is considered to be among the best in contemporary Western art. So too, as winner of the James P. Parks Trustee Purchase Award, her bronze sculpture entitled “Out of Sight” has now become a part of The Autry’s permanent collection. With the depiction of a Native American hunter, Garcia focuses on a subject with widespread appeal, and one often found in American Western Art. Yet as a Native American female artist, she also presents a rather unique interpretation, one that is tied securely to her ancestors’ rich historical roots.
This undeniable connection between the past and the present, as well as between people of varying backgrounds and cultures, is what The Autry refers to as convergence. Through the museum’s various exhibits and events, the goal is to draw divergent audiences together so that communication and understanding can flourish.
Yet the exhibit goes beyond the stereotype of what “Western” art is, or rather, what it used to be. There seems to be a deliberate--and welcome--attempt to expand the definition and perception of the Western theme.
Garcia’s husband and president of Blue Rain Gallery, Leroy Garcia, gives credit to Autry National Center Trustee John Geraghty for “his courage” and vision in supporting diversity, on many different levels, within the art world.
With paintings such as Mian Situ’s “Street Fair, San Francisco’s Chinatown, 1905”, the focus becomes the people of the West that diverse group of individuals who personified the Old West ideals of courage, strength, resourcefulness, diligence and hope.
For artist Dean L. Mitchell, who was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and raised in Quincy, Florida, there was a time in his career when he wondered how he fit into the genre of Western Art. An African-American artist, who is particularly renowned for his watercolors, Mitchell has always been intent on “capturing history.” However, in the process of painting subjects that reflect a Western theme, including Native American reservations, rural scenes with barns, and portraits of African-Americans, such as the Buffalo Soldiers, Mitchell realized his undeniable contribution.
So too, Mitchell’s work is a clear example of how art can bring people together.
In his effort to portray the human condition and emotionally touch those who look upon his art, he wonders: “Does this speak to the human spirit?”
If it does, then he has achieved his goal.
(“Masters of the American West Fine Art Exhibition and Sale” opened Saturday, February 4 and continues through March 18, 2012. The Autry National Center is located at 4700 Western Heritage Way, Los Angeles 90027. Call (323) 667-2000 for additional information.)
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