Denham Clements has an unusual history for a photorealistic painter, and is enjoying and even more unusual success. His work has been included in exhibitions at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Eiteljorg Museum in Indianapolis, the Albuquerque Museum, US Ambassador's Residence, Lima, Peru, the Tucson Museum of Art, the National Museum of the Marine Corps, as well as collections throughout the US and abroad.
Cherokee
“CHEROKEE”
45″H x 35″W
Acrylic on Canvas
This piece was the first of a lengthy series of paintings devoted to Native Americans adorned with turbans. Inspired by the remarkable works of George Catlin & Karl Bodmer from the 1830’s, I uncovered a trove of extraordinary illustrations and paintings that these two artists rendered while traveling among the native peoples of North America. Among the fetishes and various “styles” of headgear that the Plains Indians utilized were head wraps fashioned from the remnants of tapestries and bolts of cloth acquired by trading with the white man. In their documented likeness, and with fabric borrowed from a local costume store, I was able recreate these images from the past, for the gifted artists that had preceded me had already established their historical precedent.
