George Longfish

George Longfish (born August 22, 1942) is a contemporary Native American artist whose works blend pop art with traditional Native American art.[1] Many of his works have been featured in major metropolitan museums, including the Heard and the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian. He was the professor of Native American Studies at the University of California Davis for nearly 30 years.[2]

Bibliography

Longfish was born in Oshweken, Ontario, Canada, on August 22, 1942 as a Seneca and Tuscarora heritage.[1] Oshweken is a village on the Six Nations on the Grand River First Nation Indian Reserve. Longfish's mother left him and his brother when he was five years old. As a child, Longfosh admired modern artists such as Frank Stella and Arshile Gorky.[1] His mother took Longfish and his brother to the Thomas Indian School. At this school, Longfish and his brother had to take care of farm animals and slaughter them when the time was right and many other things. Longfish expressed in many of his paintings on how he endured his mother leaving him and how he slowly drifted away from his culture. Longfish and his brother were at the school for nine years. After the nine years of being separated from their mother, Longfish and his brother became more and more alien to their culture. Eventually, the school closed and Longfish and his brother moved back with their mom in Chicago.[3] He attended Tulley High School in Chicago, Illinois.[4]

Longfish earned his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree and his Master of Fine Arts degree at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.[5] During his time in college, Longfish was known as an "angry artist" as he expressed his anger and pain in his art. He used his arts to express how the colonists had truly changed the indigenous people's way of living.[6] Longfish's art style consisted of stenciled text, pictures of indigenous people, and a variety of bright colors. In 1972, the graduate program in American Indian Arts at the University of Montana was founded and managed by Longfish. After two years, Longfish became a member of the University of California Davis' Native American Studies Department. In addition, Longfish became the director of the C.N. Gorman Museum at the University of California Davis.[7]

In 2003, Longfish retired as a professor and began making a studio. As of the moment, Longfish currently lives in South Berwick, Maine. He also has a studio at Rollinsford, New Hampshire.[1]

Artworks

Longfish has dedicated his life to making artwork. He is known internationally throughout the world. His paintings often include text and bright colors. Despite having bright colors, his artwork shows the pain and anger throughout his life that he had endured. Many of Longfish's artwork, deal with the contemporary issues of indigenous people.[1]

As Above So Below

One of his famous artwork is the painting "As Above So Below". This painting shows a Pawnee chief painted in black and white sitting next to a cheese burger. The background of this painting is filled with bright colors while words such as truth, honor, earth, respect, below, honesty, lies, air, below, reincarnation, fire, dignity, integrity, and spiritual are written in the background. The painting also has the year 1997 written on it and the word water flipped upside down. 1997 was the year Brazil became the world's biggest fast food export for products such as beef. Therefore, people would destroy nature just to export fast food products. In addition, the words on the painting, such as the upside down water, also symbolize how traditional indigenous values have been flipped upside down because of colonization taking over. From what the viewer can see, Longfish paints this painting to try to express how he had to forget many of his cultural beliefs as he grew up and how they should not be forgotten.[2]

Spirit

Another one of his artwork, is the painting "Spirit". On this painting, Longfish paints a Pawnee chief in black and white once again. However, this time, the date he was born on is painted on the artwork. In addition, many phrases such as "Honoring women family children our histories memories", "broken treaties", "toxic waste dump", "genocide" and "disease" are written in the background. This painting symbolizes how colonists came to America and laid waste to many of the tribes. Colonists often made treaties with indigenous people, only to break them later. Also, they destroyed nature by building there factories and houses that all excreted toxic chemicals. Many of these colonists also brought diseases along with them, killing many indigenous people. As the viewer examines the painting, one can tell Longfish paints this painting to show how colonists have changed the way of living for indigenous people and caused many children to lose their parents and families to war or sickness.[8]

Lightly Salted

Another one of Longfish's art work is "Lightly Salted". This was painted in 1990. This artwork consists of a white background and a church with two angels and road painted with bright colors. The words butter, land and lakes are written on the painting. It is said that this artwork is a stance for people who had survived the take over of colonists. Colonists did not treat indigenous people as human beings but instead as animals and savages. This painting symbolizes how the Americans came and conquered as much land as they wanted to, forcing the indigenous people out of their land. The church on this painting represents, Americans trying to convert the indigenous people from believing in their own culture into believing in Christianity. Longfish painted this to show us how the indigenous people were treated and how they were forced to believe in religions they did not believe in.[9]

Group exhibitions

"500 Years Since Columbus" (1992), Triton Museum of Art, Santa Clara, California[10]

"Haudenosaunee Artists: A Common Heritage" (1992), Tower Fine Art Gallery, State University of New York, Brockport, New York[11]

"Indigena: Contemporary Native Perspectives" (1992), Canadian Museum of Civilization, Hull, Quebec[12]

"The Submuloc Show/Columbus Wohs" (1992-1994) Atlatl, Phoenix, Arizona[13]

"We, The Human Beings/27 Contemporary Native American Artists" (1992-1993), College of Wooster Art Museum, Wooster, Ohio[14]

"Acknowledging Our Host: Communal Sources" (1991-1992), Richmond Art Center, Richmond, California[10]

"America" (1991), Center for Contemporary Art, Sacramento, California[10]

"Our Land/Ourselves" (1991-1993), University Art Gallery, State University of New York, Albany, New York[10]

"Shared Visions" (1991-1993), Heard Museum, Phoenix, Arizona[15]

"The Decade Show" (1990), New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York, New York[10]

"Eight Native American Artists" (1987-1988), Fort Wayne Museum of Art, Fort Wayne, Indiana[16]

"The Extension of Tradition" (1985-1986), Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, California[17]

Solo exhibitions

Art Institute of California, San Francisco[18]

"George Longfish" (1989), Jennifer Pauls Gallery, Sacramento, California[19]

"George Longfish Paintings" (1989), LRC Gallery, College of the Siskiyous, Weed, California[10]

"Common Ground: New Works by George Longfish" (1986), Bernice Steinbaum Gallery, New York, New York[20]

Washington State University, Pullman[21]

University of Montana[21]

Second Unitarian Church, Chicago, Illinois, 1971[21]

Yuba College, Woodland, California[21]

"George Longfish a Retrospective" (2008), Paris Gibson Square Museum of Art, Missoula, Montana[22]

Collections
  • Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture

Awards
  • CIAE (1974, Juror's grand Award; 1977, 1st; 1980, 1st)[21]
  • HM/G (1973)[21]
  • October ArtFest, Davis, California (1981, 1st)[21]

Publications
  • George Longfish: A Retrospective[21]

See Also

References
  1. "George Longfish | deCordova". decordova.org. Retrieved 2020-03-02.
  2. Missoulian, SIMONE ELLIS for the. "Knock, knockPowerful Native American art, including the gripping work of George Longfish, asks the question: Who's here?". missoulian.com. Retrieved 2020-03-03.
  3. "An Interview with Artist George Longfish". Maven. Retrieved 2020-03-03.
  4. "A yearning for balance — visiting artist George C. Longfish's art prompts questions | Office of Public Affairs | University of Southern Maine". usm.maine.edu. Retrieved 2020-03-03.
  5. "Artist Collection". ArtsWA. Retrieved 2020-03-11.
  6. "Artist George Longfish shares his healing message with USM students | Office of Public Affairs | University of Southern Maine". usm.maine.edu. Retrieved 2020-03-03.
  7. "Opening Reception: George Longfish: Indian on Indian | USM Art Galleries Gorham and Portland | University of Southern Maine". usm.maine.edu. Retrieved 2020-03-03.
  8. sofia (2014-11-07). "George Longfish (b.1942)". contemporary arts americas tbc... Retrieved 2020-03-03.
  9. "NMAI Indian Humor - Longfish". americanindian.si.edu. Retrieved 2020-03-03.
  10. Abbott, Lawrence (1994). I Stand in the Center of the Good: Interviews with Contemporary Native American Artists. U of Nebraska Press. ISBN 978-0-8032-1037-0.
  11. Canada), Reesa (Concordia University Greenberg, Montreal (1996). Thinking about Exhibitions. Psychology Press. ISBN 978-0-415-11590-2.
  12. Hill, Richard William. "9 Group Exhibitions That Defined Contemporary Indigenous Art". Canadian Art. Retrieved 2020-03-11.
  13. Fear-Segal, Jacqueline; Tillett, Rebecca (2013-10-01). Indigenous Bodies: Reviewing, Relocating, Reclaiming. SUNY Press. ISBN 978-1-4384-4822-0.
  14. "George Longfish". Heard Museum | ARGUS.net (Final). Retrieved 2020-03-11.
  15. "Heard Museum | Advancing American Indian Art". Heard Museum. Retrieved 2020-03-11.
  16. Glazer-Danay, Richard; Brody, J. J; Kass, Emily; Fort Wayne Museum of Art (1987). 8 Native American artists: [exhibition] November 14, 1987-January 10, 1988, Fort Wayne Museum of Art. Fort Wayne, Ind. (311 E. Main St., Fort Wayne 46802): The Museum. OCLC 18569863.CS1 maint: location (link)
  17. ""When I Remember I See Red" Emphasizes American Indian Art, Activism". Crocker Art Museum. Retrieved 2020-03-11.
  18. Weiffenbach, Jean-Edith (1994). "West-Coast- What Bay Area?". Art Journal. 53 (3): 46–58. ISSN 0004-3249. JSTOR 777429.
  19. Besaw, Mindy N.; Hopkins, Candice; Well-Off-Man, Manuela (2018-10-01). Art for a New Understanding: Native Voices, 1950s to Now. University of Arkansas Press. ISBN 978-1-61075-654-9.
  20. Gaze, Delia (2013-04-03). Concise Dictionary of Women Artists. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-136-59901-9.
  21. Lester, Patrick D. (Patrick David), 1939- (1995). The biographical directory of Native American painters. ISBN 0-8061-9936-9. OCLC 34721611.CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  22. University of Montana--Missoula. Office of University Relations (2007-02-27). "George Longfish traveling exhibition opens at UM museum". University of Montana News Releases, 1928, 1956-present.
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