David Bradley

Elaine Horwitch Galleries, Santa Fe

Acquired from the above by the present owner

An illustration of Bradley’s sensitivity to sociopolitical injustice, his discerningly dry humor, and his characteristically saturated color palette, Black Hills Gold Certificate is a powerful visualized reclamation of the indigenous narrative. 

David Bradley, a Minnesota Chippewa artist, is renowned for his ability to artistically convey a Native American voice which viscerally challenges social perspectives and histories. In the present work, Bradley uses the cultural symbolism of the American dollar, replacing its iconography with Native American imagery which engenders a double-sided comic and critical irony.

The meticulously composed surface allots each area of the painting equal significance and resists focal points, priming the viewer to journey over every corner of the surface. The flat patterns, the lack of expressive brushstrokes, and striking colors compose a manifestation of Bradley’s sociopolitical ideas. Bags of gold coins and animal skulls foregrounded against a Western American landscape viscerally allude to heinous histories of Native America by referencing the Wounded Knee massacre of 1890. Speaking of such political concepts illustrated in his art, Bradley says, “My art suggests and comments on situations but does not resolve them.” 

Bradley’s art gained prominence through the Elaine Horwitch gallery in Sante Fe, acclaimed for its promotion of Southwestern contemporary art, including many of the most prominent Native artists. The Southwest was pinnacle to Bradley—“New Mexico had such an immediate impact on me, I knew that I would live the rest of my life here”—and the Horwitch gallery was the major force behind establishing the Southwest as a nexus of Contemporary Art. 

Black Hills Gold Certificate brilliantly envisions Bradley’s perception of the Southwest, presenting both the beautiful and the brutal sting of the Native American narrative.