James Lavadour

James Lavadour (born 1951) is an American painter and printmaker. A member of the Walla Walla tribe, he is known for creating large panel sets of landscape paintings. Lavadour is the co-founder of the Crow's Shadow Institute of the Arts.

Background

Early life

James Lavadour was born in 1951 to parents of Chinook, Walla Walla, German, Irish, Assiniboine, and French Canadian descent in Pendleton, Oregon. Discovering his love for painting as a child, Lavadour never completed high school, however he was encouraged by his family to explore his artistic endeavors. As a child he was inspired by what he described as "The Sistine Chapel": the peeling and water stained ceiling of his grandmothers house, with its drips and exposed layers, a visual experience that would influence his work for the rest of his life.

When he was young, his parents worked at the Washington State Penitentiary in Walla Walla. A troubled teenager and a poor student, he focused on working at any job he could find: delivery boy, canner, janitor, carpenter, and even a firefighter. Without opportunities to gain formal artistic training he used books to explore the world of art and culture, including books about: Charles Marion Russell, Robert Rauschenberg, Richard Diebenkorn, Pierre Bonnard, J. M. W. Turner, and Franz Kline. The major turn for his artistic interest came with exploring Chinese and Asian art, a different creation process where "the kinetic experience is the essence of making art."

Rejecting the iconography and symbolism inherent in Western art, Lavadour believes that rather than trying to make his artwork mean something it eventually just became something. A theory of rejection that he credits to his relationship with the environment and growing up on the Umatilla reservation.

Current work

In the 1990s Lavadour started to explore printmaking. The melding of printmaking with his painting led to complex layer usage in these new works. The layering technique of printmaking makes the geological features of the landscape look like maps or as if they are moving. These new works have also been compared to the art of Gerhard Richter. He also began to explore other themes, influenced by his interest in Chinese painting, abstract expressionism and jazz music (specifically John Coltrane), however, landscapes continue to be the basis for his work.

Lavadour's process generally involves applying layers of paint, then scraping or wiping it away, performing his own form of erosion on his unique landscapes.

Notable collections

Whitney Museum of American Art Denver Art Museum Heard Museum Indian Arts and Crafts Board National Museum of the American Indian Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art

Major exhibitions Stretching the Canvas: Eight Decades of Native Painting, 2019–21, National Museum of the American Indian George Gustav Heye Center Venice Biennale, collateral exhibition, 2013 Vantage Point, 2010, National Museum of the American Indian James Lavadour: The Properties of Paint, 2008, Hallie Ford Museum of Art A Sense of Place: Selections from the Tacoma Art Museum Collection, 2005, Tacoma Art Museum Into the Fray: The Eiteljorg Fellowship for Native American Fine Art, 2005, Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art Lewis and Clark Territory: Contemporary Artists Revisit Place, Race and Memory, 2005, Tacoma Art Museum Site Unseen: A Contemporary Look at Landscape, 2005, Savannah College of Art and Design Seattle Perspective, 2004, Seattle Convention Center 2003 Oregon Biennial, 2003, Portland Art Museum Solo exhibition, 2002, Maryhill Museum of Art Solo exhibition, 2001, Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture Solo exhibition, 1998, Pacific Northwest College of Art Land, Spirit, Power, 1992, National Gallery of Canada (NGC) Lavadour also participated in the symposium for this international travelling exhibition co-curated by Diana Nemiroff, Robert Houle, and Charlotte Townsend-Gault the NGC's first major exhibition featuring a new generation of Aboriginal artists. Solo exhibition, 1990, Portland Art Museum Solo exhibition, 1990, Boise Art Museum

Lavadour has also exhibited at numerous private galleries.

Awards Eiteljorg Fellowship, 2005, Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art Honorary Doctorates in Humane Letters, 1999, Eastern Oregon University Joan Mitchell Fellowship for Painting, 1998, Joan Mitchell Foundation Rutgers Center for Innovative Print Making Fellow, 1995, Rutgers University Oregon Governor's Arts Award, 1994 Betty Bowen Award, 1991, Seattle Museum of Art