Untitled (from the Wikondiwin series)
Artist
Gendron Jensen
(American, 1939 - 2019)
Date1989
Mediumgraphite on paper
DimensionsSupport: 71 5/8 x 42 in. (181.9 x 106.7 cm)
Frame: 72 1/4 x 42 3/4 x 2 1/4 in. (183.5 x 108.6 x 5.7 cm)
Frame: 72 1/4 x 42 3/4 x 2 1/4 in. (183.5 x 108.6 x 5.7 cm)
ClassificationsDrawing
Credit LineGift of Kay Harvey, 2012
Object number2012.11.2
DescriptionTotemic form of white-tailed deer bones float in center of paper.eMuseum Notes
The scale at which artist Gendron Jensen renders bones, and the language he uses to describe them, as “relics,” illustrates the artist’s reverence for the natural world. Jensen takes certain liberties with the bones, combining or stacking bones as in the case of this configuration from his Wikondiwin series. Jensen drew the bones of White-tailed deer that he gathered from wolf-kills while living in the northwoods of Minnesota and working alongside Department of Natural Resources researchers in the field. The wolf inspires deep ambivalence in the American West, including in New Mexico where there is a long-standing debate between naturalists and ranchers over the endangered Mexican gray wolf and the U.S. Fish & Wildlife’s recovery and reintroduction program. In this context, Jensen’s drawing of the bones of wolves’ prey brings to mind this debate and societal attitudes toward the wolf. This relates to two other deer-bone drawings from the same series also in the collection.
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