A FISH TALE, PART II: More on Rick Bartow’s Autumnal Metaphor Series

Although there are seventeen works in Rick Bartow’s Autumnal Metaphor Series, certain pieces speak to me more than others.  Among the images of flowers, birds, dogs, and a bear, it was those employing the likenesses of salmon and human-headed fish that most spoke to me.  I have no idea why this is so.

Bartow used the image of the salmon in many works.  The life cycle of this fish is a metaphor for many things: beauty, creativity, mortality, and the transition from one form to another.   After years in the ocean, the salmon return to the river where they hatched, struggle upstream against great odds, mate and die.  In the process, they provide food for a wide variety of animals and what is not eaten fertilizes the earth.  Autumnal Metaphor 4, Autumnal Metaphor 6 and Autumnal Metaphor 9 were the first works in the series to catch my eye but, as I kept returning to the series, my attention was also drawn to three pieces depicting a fish with a human face and one with the likeness of a sockeye salmon.   (The entire Autumnal Metaphor Series can be seen at the end of this article.)

 

 

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.  Photo courtesy of the Froelick Gallery.

 

Perhaps what first attracted me to Autumnal Metaphor 2 and the other works in the series that portray hybrid human/fish creatures is their resemblance to similar imagery in Inuit art.  However, these works are rendered in Rick Bartow’s unique style.  From the paper the artist chose to the colors he used, the dominant tone of Autumnal Metaphor 2 is distinctly muted.  Tans and browns predominate, though there are areas of red, orange, blue, and turquoise as well.  The page is also covered with all manner of brown “splotches” “dots” “flecks” and a blue smudge at the very top of the work.  What may appear to be stray marks on the page are not the result of carelessness.  These curious marks impart a sense of spontaneity.  “Making marks,” as Rick Bartow referred to this practice, became a hallmark of his art.

One of the most intriguing marks is a large patch of red where the creature’s heart would be, which resembles both a fin and blood.  Perhaps, Bartow is suggesting that the process of transformation (being an artist) involves suffering.  Much of his art is informed by his battle with addiction, PTSD and the pain of losing his wife to cancer.

The image of an animal with a human face is one that the artist frequently employed.  It was a way of creating a self-portrait, which stood for a particular aspect of his personality.  Although he draws on the Native American cultural tradition of humans transforming into animals and animals becoming humans, Bartow’s genius brings a psychological component to the forefront of such imagery.

The human-faced fish in Autumnal Metaphor 2 is set off by two lines – one vertical and the other horizontal – leaving it up to the viewer to add the other two lines necessary to form a rectangle, thus creating a frame.  It is a stoke of brilliance.  By doing so, Rick Bartow engages the viewer as an active participant with the work.

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.  Photo Courtesy of the Froelick Gallery.

  

The first thing that struck me about Autumnal Metaphor 3 was the name Boyden in the title.  This is a reference to artist Frank Boyden with whom Rick Bartow produced Parts & Pieces: A Brief Bestiary, a handmade book in which works by Bartow alternated with those of Boyden.  Created in 2002, this artists’ book contains eight original etchings and eight drawings with watercolor, graphite, and ink by each artist.  Each artist imagined the creatures in this bestiary in his own unique artistic style.  Bartow’s pieces tend to be more expressionistic while those of Boyden favor the realistic.

The hybrid fish Rick Bartow drew in Autumnal Metaphor 3, Last Swimmer/Boyden’s Dream is very much in keeping with the volume the two men created.  The work contains elements of the realistic, the surreal, and the expressionistic.

The red human face on the fish is most probably a self-portrait.  The color may be another allusion on the part of the artist to the days when he was an active alcoholic.   Strangely, the creature’s tail and two fingers of its left hand are also red.  Most of the fish’s body is black, but there are splotches of light blue here and there.  There are also outlines of hands on the page as well as a blue hammer, one of Bartow’s many homages to fellow artist Jim Dine.  Near the bottom of the work is a light blue creature with red teeth, which could be a bear or coyote – both of which the artist has used to represent different aspects of his persona.  Scattered about are circles, dots, and scores of what appear to be, but aren’t, stray marks.  Once again, it is Bartow making marks.

 

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.  Photo courtesy of the Froelick Gallery.

The fish in Autumnal Metaphor 7, Salmon has mottled colors – black, yellow, red, pink, light green, and turquoise.  In nature, salmon are one color during the time they live in the ocean, but upon returning to their spawning grounds, their coloration changes.   Bartow appears to be alluding to this physical transformation in an expressionistic rather than realistic manner.

The fish’s head has been cut off, revealing a human face with a red nose, indicating that this is a self-portrait.  Bartow often drew himself with a red nose as a reminder to his sober self that he was an alcoholic.  The artist is, once again, saying that he and the salmon are one.  The fish is a symbol of Rick Bartow as an artist, someone who, like the salmon, has gone through many struggles and changes in the course of his life.

Autumnal Metaphor 10, Nerka by Rick Bartow, Wiyot, mixed media – casein, graphite, watercolor, gouache on Japanese paper, 46.5” x 65.5” (2014).  Photo courtesy of the Froelick Gallery.

 

 Rick Bartow often incorporated words into his prints, drawings, and mixed media works.  In Autumnal Metaphor 10, Nerka the word NerKa can be clearly seen.   It stands for Oncorhynchus nerka, the scientific name of the sockeye salmon, which is also known as the red salmon, the blueback salmon, or the  kokanee salmon.  The way the artist drew the fish creates the illusion that the viewer can see through it and may represent the salmon’s battered state as it swims upriver over rocks and waterfalls to reach its spawning grounds.  Like the salmon, by the end of his life Rick Bartow had been buffeted by life.

Of the seventeen works in Rick Bartow’s Autumnal Metaphor Series seven reference fish, in particular salmon.  Clearly, this was a very powerful metaphor for the artist and one that he used repeatedly throughout his career in prints, drawings, mixed media works, and paintings.  This fish may have been a favorite of Rick Bartow’s because, in spite of its struggles and its beat up state at the end of its life, it manages to create something that will survive its own death.

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.