Rick Bartow at the Hallie Ford Museum - Salem, Ore

Syncretism rules the art of Rick Bartow, whose 15-year retrospective revealed how he harmonizes esthetic strategies from diverse cultural sources. Sensitive to expressive tendencies of all kinds, the artist has traveled to Germany, Japan and New Zealand, seeking knowledge of traditions beyond his own Native American experience. Bartow is of Yurok descent; that heritage informs his subject matter, but his style is supremely eclectic, prompting the recitation of lists of influences or affinities: Bacon, Diebenkorn, Horst Janssen and Fritz Scholder, as well as African, Maori and Pacific Northwest Coast carving, Japanese prints and flung-ink painting.

A bust-length self-portrait on paper from 1998 is emblematic of Bartow's effective blendings. Scrawled across the surface of the picture, in German, is its title, Self, 51 Years Old. Bartow's drawing is quick and forceful; pink, blue and turquoise pastel is deftly applied; color washes drip and run, reinforcing a sense of Expressionist spontaneity. The figure casts a wary, sidelong glance through wire-rimmed glasses as two disembodied hands touch his chest, symbols of human connection, perhaps, or spirits from the past. White scumbling veils the left half of the portrait, as if the artist were partly haunted, while an antler sprouts from his forehead. In a moment of middle-aged introspection, Bartow assumes this totemic attribute, periodically shed in the life of the deer or elk, as a hopeful sign of regeneration.

In other images, too, human beings are given animal attributes, or mythic creatures like Crow, Salmon and Bear enact their respective natures in Indian legend. Big Lotso (1999), one of the most impressive works in the exhibition, depicts a huge frog seen from above. It occupies the entire 6-foot-high composition, with ink spatters, sgraffito and handprints enlivening the surface. Barrow includes various notations: his name in Japanese characters and the addresses of galleries in Seattle and Urawa City, Japan. The polyglot quality of his enterprise is echoed in the picture's title: Iotso is Yurok for "green frog," an amphibious, adaptable creature that, emerging from its earlier tadpole state, is also the veritable embodiment of transformation.

Barrow explores similar themes in his sculpture, presenting animals and humans in wood carvings or assemblages of recycled materials, but his drawing betrays none of the folk-art sensibility of these sometimes improvisatory objects. The powerful 1998 pastel Sie/Angry (She/Angry), confronting the viewer with the gaping jaws of a she-bear on the attack, exemplifies the draftsmanly sophistication and expressive mark-making that are the hallmarks of Bartow's considerable achievement. ["Rick Bartow: My Eye" opened at the Hallie Ford Museum of Art (Jan. 19-Mar. 17, 2002) and travels to the Museum of Northwest Art, La Conner, Wash. (Oct. 12, 2002-Jan. 5, 2003).]

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