Loser + Clark

1999

American, born 1956

Kahlhamer skewers grandiose notions of Western expansion and Manifest Destiny from the perspective of a Native American, not to mention co-opting the outward expressions of inner states as practiced by Abstract Expressionists such as Arshile Gorky. Like most of the artists in this gallery, he builds upon and pushes forward traditions of painting by positing a more open, hybridized, and ultimately contemporary form of figuration.

Oil on canvas

84 x 120 in. (213.4 x 304.8 cm)

Gift of the ContemporaryArtProject, Seattle

2002.25

Now on view at the Seattle Art Museum

Resources

Exhibition HistoryTacoma, Washington, Tacoma Art Museum, Lewis and Clark Territory: Contemporary Artists Revist Race, Place and Memory, Feb. 14, 2004 - Mar. 21, 2005.

Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, SAM Collects: ContemporaryArtProject, Dec. 20, 2002 - Apr. 6, 2003. Text by Tara Reddy Young. No cat. no., pp. 16-17, 67, reproduced pl. 4.

New York, New York, Deitch Western, Brad Kahlhamer: Friendly Frontier. Oct.14 - Nov. 6, 1999. Text by Jeffrey Deitch. Installation image used as exhibition poster.

Published ReferencesCollins, Tom. Looking at a Legend. Albuquerque Journal North. August 16, 2002.

Deitch, Jeffrey, Dean Sobel, and Mariuccia Casadio. 2007. Brad Kahlhamer. Milan: Ediziono Charta.

Fleissig, Peter. 1999. Friendly Frontier. New York: Deitch Projects.

Mahoney, Robert. 1999. Native Speakers. Artnet.

Seattle Art Museum respectfully acknowledges that we are on Indigenous land, the traditional territories of the Coast Salish people. We honor our ongoing connection to these communities past, present, and future.

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