Face the Sun Forever

Top and Middle (detail)
Marsden Hartley (1877-1943)
American Indian Symbols, 1914
Ammon Carter Museum
Fort Worth, TX

Bottom:
Wil barnet (b. 1911)
Self Portrait, 1948-9
Ammon Carter Museum
Fort Worth, TX

From the descriptor panel:
Marden Hartley drew inspiration for this painting from several sources: mysticism,German folk art, and the avant-garde theories of Europe's most progressive artists. He emplyed abstracted motifs derived from American Indan culture: medicine wheels, tipis, shields, cheif's blankets, and warbonnets, fashioning them into schematic designs of bright, glowing colors. He wrote to his American dealer, Alfred Stieglitz: " I Find myself wanting to be an indian--to paint my face with the symbols of that race I adore, go to the West and face the sun forever--that would seem the true expression of human dignity."

These paintings are total kicks in the booty (along with Remington, the Grant Wood they have and totally from another planet, Stuart Davis).