This exhibition will display recent donations to the museum’s permanent collection of eight bronzes by Gary Schildt from his “Huck Finn” series and sixteen paintings by King Kuka (1946-2004). Gary Schildt, who was born in 1938 on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation, received his art training at the San Francisco Academy of Fine Art and the City College in San Francisco, California where he studied both commercial art and photography. Schildt gives his childhood experiences on his grandfather’s ranch on the Blackfeet Reservation credit for his journey to becoming an artist. He is a founding member of the Northwest Rendezvous Group, and is well known for his oil paintings and bronze sculptures of contemporary Blackfeet Indian life. He is noted for his sensitivity and artistic excellence in virtually all mediums. In 1999, he received the Montana Governor’s Award for the Arts. The “Huck Finn” series was generously donated to the Museum by Dr. & Mrs. Robert Friess.

King Kuka, was a member of the Blackfeet Tribe of Montana. Kuka, whose Indian name was Black Wolf, attended public school in Valier and then enrolled in the Institute of American Indian Arts, in Santa Fe, NM. He later completed a military service with the US Army and then enrolled in art education courses at the University of Montana. Kuka was a skilled artist who enjoyed the expression that the arts allowed him. Kuka’s art has been described as ethereal American art. His work conveys a powerful source of spiritualism. Kuka made many a bold statement though his paintings over his career. Today, thanks to a special gift of Nancy and John Hubble, Kuka’s paintings will endure time and be preserved in the Hockaday Museum’s permanent collection.
 

Blackfeet Medicine Shield, by King Kuka