Ground Strike
James Lavadour, Ground Strike, 1989, triptych; oil on linen on board, Museum Purchase: Robert Hale Ellis Jr. Fund for the Blanche Eloise Day Ellis and Robert Hale Ellis Memorial Collection, © James Lavadour, 91.4
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- Title
Ground Strike
- Artist
- Date
1989
- Medium
triptych; oil on linen on board
- Dimensions (H x W x D)
93 in x 21 in
- Inscriptions & Markings
signature; date: lavadour 89, bottom right of each panel
- Collection Area
Modern and Contemporary Art; Native American Art; Northwest Art
- Category
Plateau
Western Oregon
Paintings
- Object Type
painting
- Culture
American
Walla Walla
- Credit Line
Museum Purchase: Robert Hale Ellis Jr. Fund for the Blanche Eloise Day Ellis and Robert Hale Ellis Memorial Collection
- Accession Number
91.4
- Copyright
© James Lavadour
- Terms
In the mid-1980s, self-taught artist James Lavadour determined to focus his attention on the landscape where he has spent most of his life: the Umatilla Indian Reservation outside Pendleton, Oregon. He learned the terrain by walking it, in an effort to internalize the structure that knits together the landforms of the Blue Mountains. In the paintings that resulted, Lavadour has distilled particulars of the land to a critical essence, creating a symbolic vocabulary of clouds, hills, rocks, and chasms. These works are both beautiful and haunting, alluding to the history, both geologic and human, that these sites contain.
Lavadour has received numerous honors, including the Agnes Martin award and, recently, the Governor's Art Award. He is also the founder of Crow's Shadow Institute, whose mission is to provide educational and social opportunities to Native Americans through artistic development.