Dorothy Gill Barnes, 93, Artist Whose Raw Material Came From Trees, Dies
She created works from bark, wood and roots, sometimes carving patterns into trees and waiting years to see the scarring. She died of complications of Covid-19.
Dorothy Gill Barnes, a sculptor in bark and wood, could make tree fiber seem as malleable as clay. Credit.Tom Grotta
Published Dec. 17, 2020Updated Jan. 1, 2021
This obituary is part of a series about people who have died in the coronavirus pandemic. Read about others
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Well into her 80s, the wood sculptor and basket maker Dorothy Gill Barnes was always on the hunt for raw material. In her case, that meant trees.
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Last week, a Newsweek reporter filed a dispatch on a Senate bill that would lead to the creation of the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Latino in Washington, D.C.
At the time, the vote seemed almost pro forma. A similar bill had sailed through the House in July, and many expected the Senate bill to pass by unanimous consent (Senate parlance for a voice vote). The bill would then move to the White House. And that, reported Newsweek, “would leave President Donald Trump to get it across the finish line before his term ends.” No small irony given Trump’s often disparaging remarks toward Mexicans, and the fact that his most significant nod to Latino culture in recent years was having himself photographed with a taco bowl.
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Behind the Devastating, Prize-Winning Image ‘Muerto Rico’
[Many thanks to Teo Freytes for bringing this item to our attention.] This article by Roger Catlin (
Smithsonian Magazine) from June 1, 2020, examines ADÁL’s “Muerto Rico,” which won the People’s Choice award in
The figure lies beneath the water in a bathtub. A red bandana obscures the individual’s face. As one eye looks out warily; the other is concealed by a murky air bubble. The stark message “Muerto Rico” in handmade white letters is emblazoned across the figure’s black T-shirt.
The striking photograph, by the artist known as ADÁL, recently won recognition as the winner of the People’s Choice award in the National Portrait Gallery’s Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition. More than 17,000 cast their votes online a record for the triennial competition. [. . .] ADÁL is the second Latinx artist to win its People’s Choice Award.
Dec. 11, 2020 5:51 pm ET
The history seems barely credible. A Prussian aristocrat, born in 1769, works for five years as a mine inspector. After his motherâs death, he uses a good chunk of the family fortune on a five-year expedition through the primeval forests and uncharted waterways of South America and Mexico. On his way home, in 1804, he spends a scant six weeks in the United States. But by virtue of his American contacts, his German and French writing, his research and his generosity of spirit, Alexander von Humboldt inspires a century of American writers, artists, explorers and scientists, championing Americaâs exceptionalism while also assessing its flaws.