As a painter of the natural world for more than five decades, Kay WalkingStick says it is impossible not to be influenced by the 19th-century Hudson River School’s majestic depictions of the American landscape.
“They were selling the American landscape as empty and of course it was not empty; it was populated,” said Ms. WalkingStick, who in her bold, pared-down painting style revisits similar vistas on which she overlays geometric patterns used by the Native tribe connected to that specific land.
“I think of it as a reminder that we’re all living on Indian Territory.”The exhibition “Kay WalkingStick/Hudson River School” opens Friday at the New-York Historical Society.
It is the 88-year-old Cherokee artist’s largest museum show so far in New York City, where she received her M.F.A.
“I wanted to see our Hudson River School collection through Kay’s eyes and how her work helps us to reinterpret the history of landscape painting in North America,” said Wendy Nalani E. Ikemoto, the museum’s senior curator of American art and a Native Hawaiian.
Persons:
Kay WalkingStick, Thomas Cole, Albert Bierstadt, Asher B, Durand, “, ”, WalkingStick, “ Kay WalkingStick, WalkingStick’s, Cole, Bierstadt, Frederick A, John Frederick Kensett, Jesse Talbot, Wendy Nalani E
Organizations:
Fine Arts, Hudson River, York Historical Society, Cherokee, Pratt Institute
Locations:
Indian Territory, Hudson, New York City, North America