This oil painting belongs to the Curtis series I developed about a decade ago, based on the well-known photographic work of Edward S. Curtis (1868–1952), who documented numerous Native American nations across North America in the early twentieth century. The title refers to Bull Chief of the Apsáalooke — also known as the Crow tribe — traditionally located in the Northern Plains, particularly in present-day Montana and Wyoming.
Rather than reproducing Curtis’ sepia photograph, I approached the image as a reflection on historical memory and presence: how a face, once fixed in an archival document, can re-emerge through paint as a contemporary, contemplative figure. The restrained palette echoes the original sepia tonality while allowing the portrait to shift from document to interpretation.
Atypical in relation to my more recent work, these Curtis portraits now form part of an earlier legacy within my practice. They remain as meditations on transmission — between history and image, between the photographed subject and the painted presence.
