Collector's Corner
A FISH TALE, PART I: Rick Bartow’s Autumnal Metaphor Series
Jul
A few months ago I saw Rick Bartow’s Autumnal Metaphor 9, Salmon (red fin) on the Froelick Gallery website and emailed Wilder Schmaltz, Assistant Director of the gallery, for some additional images and information. I learned that the piece is part of a series of seventeen works, which piqued my interest. Salmon, human-headed fish, flowers, birds, dogs, and a bear, are all rendered in Rick Bartow’s unique style in this series. Although these works are beyond my reach financially, they fascinated me, but it was three salmon images in particular that I couldn’t get out of my mind: Autumnal Metaphor 9, Autumnal Metaphor 6, and Autumnal Metaphor 4. (The entire Autumnal Metaphor Series can be seen at the end of this article.)
Autumnal Metaphor 9, Salmon (red fin) by Rick Bartow, Wiyot, mixed media – casein, graphite, watercolor, gouache on Japanese paper, 27” x 58” (2014). Photo courtesy of the Froelick Gallery.
As striking as the image of the salmon is in Autumnal Metaphor 9, it is not intended as mere documentation. Instead, it suggests something far more profound. Rick Bartow often used animals as a sort of stand-in for himself. A variety of creatures represented different aspects of his personality and became, in essence, symbolic self-portraits.
Autumnal Metaphor 9, Salmon (red fin) – detail of first section. Photo courtesy of the Froelick Gallery.
The image of a salmon appears frequently in the artist’s work. Perhaps he associated this fish with the transience of human life. The salmon hatches, travels to the vast oceans where it spends a good part of its life, then, against great odds, travels upstream to its place of origin to spawn and finally die as the cycle begins again. The salmon also is a metaphor for creativity and a symbol of life, abundant food and fertility. In it’s reproductive struggle upstream it feeds humans as well as a variety of animals. After mating, the salmon die and their decomposing bodies become food and fertilizer. This is a fact that would have been well known to the artist.
Autumnal Metaphor 9, Salmon (red fin) – detail of central section. Photo courtesy of the Froelick Gallery.
Autumnal Metaphor 9 is striking in a number of other ways: its size (27” high by 58” long), the fact that it was created using three sheets of paper; it’s mysterious imagery; and the incorporation of writing in an unusual way.
The central panel of the work contains a mysterious face, which appears ursine and could easily be another symbolic self-portrait. It could also refer to the relationship between bears and salmon in the Pacific Northwest. Without the yearly migration of salmon into the rivers where they were hatched, the bears would not survive winter. The work’s center section also contains marks within a circle. I used a magnifying glass and turned a photo of the work every which way in an effort to make sense of what appeared to be some sort of writing. It then dawned on me that what I was looking at could be Japanese characters so I contacted Seii Hiroshima, a master printer and gallery owner who was a friend of Rick Bartow’s. He wrote back, “This kanji on the middle sheet of paper is 試. Perhaps it is sign indicating a sample or prototype.” One mystery solved; one to go.
Autumnal Metaphor 9, Salmon (red fin) – detail of the third section. Photo courtesy of the Froelick Gallery.
The work’s final section also contains enigmatic writing. Thinking that the artist had written something backwards, as he had done in other works, I enlarged the third section of Autumnal Metaphor 9, Salmon (red fin), printed it out, and held it up to to a magnifying mirror, thinking I would be able to decipher what the artist had written since this had worked in the past. However, it didn’t. To my eyes, the first two marks looked like the the letters T and O so I assumed that what Rick Bartow had written was some sort of dedication. When the mirror trick failed I kept looking at the image and turning it in my hand. This finally revealed that what I thought were letters were actually the number 10 and beneath it a 4. It is mere conjecture as to what the two numerals might mean, but ten and four are fourteen, which might stand for 2014, the year Autumnal Metaphor 9, Salmon (red fin) was produced. However, I couldn’t decipher what was written below so I, again, contacted Seii Hiroshima who first informed me about the paper the artist employed: “. . . these three papers are called Gampi Kukijimai.” He also indicated that they were made about seventy years ago. “The kanji written on the 3rd section,” he continued, “can be read as 愛子, AIKO, probably the name of the craftsman who made this paper. The numbers may represent dates as you said.”
Rick Bartow often included numbers, words (both English and from other languages) as well as a diverse range of curious marks in his work. “Mark making,” as he referred to it, became a hallmark of his art and he once told his friend, the gallerist Charles Froelick that he told stories “through marks and images.”
Autumnal Metaphor 6, Salmon, by Rick Bartow, Wiyot, mixed media – casein, graphite, watercolor, gouache on japanese paper, 26” x 58” (2014). Photo courtesy of the Froelick Gallery.
Like Autumnal Metaphor 9, Autumnal Metaphor 6 is comprised of multiple sheets of paper that Bartow glued together. However, in addition to the head, body and tail of the salmon, the artist added a fourth section that contains a large block of handwritten text about an encounter with a fish, which is absolutely relevant to all of the works in the series that contain images of salmon.
Autumnal Metaphor 6, Salmon – detail of first section. Photo courtesy of the Froelick Gallery.
The first section of Autumnal Metaphor 6 (the fish’s head) contains some strange marks: a 4 above a 6 and, below them, Japanese characters. What the two numbers may refer to is unclear. However, according to Seii Hiroshima, the kanji characters 民子 stand for Tamiko, the name of the woman who made the paper. In the past, Japanese papermaking was done by farming women during the winter months and was very hard work.
Autumnal Metaphor 6, Salmon – detail of central section. Photo courtesy of the Froelick Gallery.
The central section of Autumnal Metaphor 6, Salmon contains the image of a face just below the fish’s dorsal fin. Above it is a red, oval stamp and below it the numbers 33 11 27 – all upside-down. Below and to the right of the face is the number 2 over another number 2 and Japanese characters. About these mysteries Seii Hiroshima wrote: “I don’t know what the red small oval stamp means. The number 33 11 27 means November 27th, 1958.” As for the face in the center of the work, he stated, “I’m sure the portrait is Rick’s self-portrait.” He also said that the kanji below it also stand for 民子 – Tamiko – as in the previous section. Seii didn’t know what the two 2s might mean so I contacted Charles Froelick who commented, “the “22 . . . I have no clue. It’s something either Rick collaged on there, or was already on the paper.” It appears that the twos and the red oval stamp were most likely on the paper when the artist acquired it. This was not uncommon in Rick Bartow’s practice.
Autumnal Metaphor 6, Salmon – detail of third section. Photo courtesy of the Froelick Gallery.
In the third section of Autumnal Metaphor 6 there is an eye in the salmon’s tail. It is a symbol that the artist has used many times. Although it may suggest the All-Seeing Divine, it could just as easily represent the ability of artists to perceive aspects of existence that are unseen by the rest of humanity.
Autumnal Metaphor 6, Salmon – detail of fourth section with text. Photo courtesy of the Froelick Gallery.
In the final section of Autumnal Metaphor 6, Rick Bartow included a large block of handwritten text, which is reproduced below. This story, which tells of an encounter with a fish, is absolutely relevant to the works in the Autumnal Metaphor Series, which portray fish or human-fish hybrids.
Well sir we were there in the morning early working on the wood house digging and measuring with a length of hay string from bailing hay the creek was chuckling along that we don’t hear it much.
We were up on the rafters fashioned out of cherry poles when we heard the beginning of the mystery salmon to return in the leaves of golden-green and orange-red. The explosion of the water as they hurled themselves across the little ‘reef’!
We didn’t talk much when we were alone so we just called down to be more closer to the feeling of the mystery.
Now, this was when we had been told how to honor and pray to the fish for their survival and success. As one years there was a big hen who made up over the reef and then the river dropped as the rain stopped and she was alone she circled a couple days and then it was time and she spawned alone.
felt like crying-she was strong-big-seemed like it was a waste but we ain’t knowing just pray.
Anyway, the fish became revealed the mystery to the old man and I as we offered Tobacco these fish come up one two three four on the side water – we put offer and prayed and they those one two three and four fish kicked off into deeper water.
Sometimes the mystery reveals itself in the most humble wonderful simple manner-
Once after uncle’s passing my boy and I went to visit the fish and put down Tobacco out and one big old sore back made a b line right across the creek in front in the shallows and circle it’s back with the head up out of the water looking right us and the boy asked: “was that Uncle do you think”?
Autumnal Metaphor 4 (Two Salmon) by Rick Bartow, mixed media – casein, graphite, watercolor, gouache on japanese paper 36 x 48” (2014). 2016 Gift to The Autry Museum of The American West, Los Angeles, from The Rick Bartow Trust and Froelick Gallery. Photo courtesy of the Froelick Gallery.
Autumnal Metaphor 4 is one of the majority of works in the Autumnal Metaphor Series that was produced using only one sheet of paper. Although its depiction of the salmon is bright and colorful, it is technically not an exclusively naturalistic work since it contains symbolic (some might say surreal) elements.
Just above the two fish, at the top of the work, there is an image of a man with a red nose. I emailed Charles Froelick to ascertain whether this was Rick Bartow as I suspected. “. . . his nose is red,” Froelick replied. “I consider that an immediate ‘Yes’ for self-portrait . . . . to Rick, it’s the mark/history of an alcoholic to have a red nose – his reminder to himself of his drinking days.
To the left of the fish is another odd detail: a light blue hammer. This struck me as quite odd and, once again, Charles Froelick came to the rescue: “The hammer,” he wrote, “is an homage to Jim Dine! Some works have had wrenches, others pliers, or hammers. He also used tools as his own symbol: ‘Just Work!’”
Rick Bartow was compelled to tell stories by making marks. His work is visceral, expressionistic, symbolic, and, often, surreal. Bartow often employed representations of animals – salmon, crows, bears, eagles, and dogs – to create emotional self-portraits. Although he drew on his Wiyot heritage, he was inspired by a diverse range of other influences as well. The works in the Autumnal Metaphor Series are rich and varied. All of them were produced in 2014, which the artist clearly saw as the autumn of his life. Whether flowers, birds, dogs, a bear, human-headed fish or salmon, the images in the series are a meditation on creativity, beauty, life, mortality, and the realm of the spiritual.
The author would like to express his sincere gratitude to Charles Froelick, owner of the Froelick Gallery, and to Wilder Schmaltz, Assistant Director of the Froelick Gallery, for their invaluable help with this article.
A special thank you is offered as well to master printer and gallery owner Seiichi (Seii) Hiroshima.
The Autumnal Metaphor Series:
(All images courtesy of the Froelick Gallery, Portland, OR.)
Autumnal Metaphor 1 (flower in bottle) by Rick Bartow, Wiyot, mixed media – casein, graphite, watercolor, gouache on Japanese paper, 30.75” x 11.75” (2014).
Autumnal Metaphor 2, Fish Swimmer by Rick Bartow, Wiyot, mixed media – casein, graphite, watercolor, gouache on Japanese paper, 29” x 40” (2014). 2016 Gift to The Autry Museum of The American West, Los Angeles, from The Rick Bartow Trust and Froelick Gallery.
Autumnal Metaphor 3, Last Swimmer/Boyden’s Dream by Rick Bartow, Wiyot, mixed media – casein, graphite, watercolor, gouache on ZERKALL-BUETTEN paper, 38” x 50” (2014). 2016 Gift to The Autry Museum of The American West, Los Angeles, from The Rick Bartow Trust and Froelick Gallery.
Autumnal Metaphor 4 (two salmon) by Rick Bartow, Wiyot, mixed media – casein, graphite, watercolor, gouache on Japanese paper, 37.5” x 48” (2014). 2016 Gift to The Autry Museum of The American West, Los Angeles, from The Rick Bartow Trust and Froelick Gallery.
Autumnal Metaphor 5, July 30 RB Bottle, Weeds, Life by Rick Bartow, Wiyot, mixed media – casein, graphite, watercolor, gouache on Japanese paper. 48” x 38” (2014).
Autumnal Metaphor 6, Salmon by Rick Bartow, Wiyot, mixed media – casein, graphite, watercolor, gouache on Japanese paper, 26” x 58” (2014). Collection of The Ford Foundation, New York, NY.
Autumnal Metaphor 7, Salmon by Rick Bartow, Wiyot, mixed media – casein, graphite, watercolor, gouache on Japanese paper, 38” x 72” (2014). 2016 Gift to The Autry Museum of The American West, Los Angeles, from The Rick Bartow Trust and Froelick Gallery.
Autumnal Metaphor 8, Hawk Kimono by Rick Bartow, Wiyot, mixed media – casein, graphite, watercolor, gouache on Japanese paper, 35” x 35.5” (2014). 20167 Gift to The Schingoethe Center at Aurora University, Aurora, Illinois, from The Rick Bartow Trust and Froelick Gallery.
Autumnal Metaphor 9, Salmon (red fin) by Rick Bartow, Wiyot, mixed media – casein, graphite, watercolor, gouache on Japanese paper, 27” x 58” (2014). Private Collection.
Autumnal Metaphor 10, Nerka by Rick Bartow, Wiyot, mixed media – casein, graphite, watercolor, gouache on Japanese paper, 46.5” x 65.5” (2014).
Autumnal Metaphor 11, 3 Sparrow by Rick Bartow, Wiyot, mixed media – casein, graphite, watercolor, gouache on Japanese paper, 37” x 69” (2014).
Autumnal Metaphor 12, Dream Dance by Rick Bartow, mixed media – casein, graphite, watercolor, gouache on Japanese paper, 71” x 48” (2014). 2016 Gift to The Autry Museum of The American West, Los Angeles, from The Rick Bartow Trust and Froelick Gallery.
Autumnal Metaphor 13, Flower by Rick Bartow, Wiyot, mixed media – casein, graphite, watercolor, gouache on antique Japanese paper, 36” x 48” (2014).
Autumnal Metaphor 14, WI Blanc by Rick Bartow, Wiyot, mixed media – casein, graphite, watercolor, gouache on Japanese paper, 72” x 48” (2014).
Autumnal Metaphor 15, Dog Dog by Rick Bartow, Wiyot, mixed media – casein, graphite, watercolor, gouache on Japanese paper, 39” x 75” (2014). 2016 Gift to The Autry Museum of The American West, Los Angeles, from The Rick Bartow Trust and Froelick Gallery.
Autumnal Metaphor 16, (four flower stems) by Rick Bartow, Wiyot, mixed media – casein, graphite, watercolor, gouache on Japanese paper, 45.75” x 65.75” (2014).
Autumnal Metaphor 17, Ghost 2 Dog Barking, by Rick Bartow, Wiyot, mixed media – casein, graphite, watercolor, gouache on Japanese paper, 50” x 76” (2014). 2016 Gift to The Autry Museum of The American West, Los Angeles, from The Rick Bartow Trust and Froelick Gallery.
