Treasures from Our West: Bama’s “A Contemporary Sioux Indian”

Originally featured in Points West in Winter 2012

A Contemporary Sioux Indian by James Bama

James Bama’s A Contemporary Sioux Indian is laden with narrative complexities. The painting’s subject, a young Oglala Sioux, exudes a sense of isolation and loss. He is painted in a shallow plane against a stark backdrop which forces the viewer to confront the subject. The compressed space also stylistically marks this as a contemporary painting. The young man wears wrapped braids, a choker, and a feather, all articles that evoke a distant past—in contrast, however, to his ribbon shirt, a garment that evolved in the wake of the influx of trappers and traders in the West. The contrasting components of the figure’s wardrobe collide with the present when we read the flaking paint on the wall behind the young Sioux: “NO PARKING VIOLATORS TOWED AWAY.”

In what world, then, does he belong?

James Bama (1926 – 2022). A Contemporary Sioux Indian, 1978. Oil on panel. 23.375 x 35.375 inches. William E. Weiss Contemporary Art Fund Purchase. 19.78

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