Biography from Kiva Fine Art:
| Marie Barbera is a first generation Italian-American known for
figurative bronze sculptures of Native Americans. Her father, who
emigrated from Italy to the United States in 1915, was a craftsman
restoring architectural details on federal and state buildings during
the WPA programs of the 1930's. Both Marie and her brother chose
to pursue an interest in art while growing up. Married to Frank
Barbera in the 1950's, Marie and her husband raised two children and
now have two grandchildren as well. After many years as wife and
mother, Marie returned to her work and developed the Barbera Studio.
As of late, Marie Barbera has started working on and producing life
size works that are well suited to public and private outdoor
installations.
Artist Statement: Marie Barbera
I cannot identify why I felt so strongly about Native American culture
but I did not create my art until discovering the world of the Native
American Nations. At first I felt it was not my place to appropriate
Native American subjects. This was not my own cultural
heritage. At first I experimented with pastoral landscape but
found this did not hold my interest. I relented to my fascination with
the subject of native women and the influence of my appreciation for
the work of Francisco Zuniga.
"I relented to my fascination with the subject of native women..."
Indiginous Americans are peoples of the earth and I feel I have
developed a dialogue with them as I recreate their stories from their
history into clay and into bronze. I develop my ideas from researching
books. Something I read will intrigue me and I'll seek out additional
information and become so involved in that story that I will integrate
it to my own rememberence. These stories allow me to relate to you my
works.
" ...stories allow me to relate to you my works."
In the 1960's I produced the first work of this Native thematic in the
form of large scale watercolors reminiscent of Zuniga's sculptures of
that same period. I love Zuniga's figures with large hands and
feet, which suggest strength to me. I studied his drawings and
sculptures in books and from examples of actual work from the San Diego
Museum of Art Collection. I resisted the transition to a three
dimensional medium for nearly twenty years and am sorry I waited so
long. Clay is a wonderful medium that facilitates the full
expression of my ideas.
I learned about the symbolism of the shield in Thomas E. Mails' book Mystic Warriors of the Plains.
In my The Shield of the Crow, I portrayed the Crow
tradition of telling their history and acknowledging their honors by
adding feathers to shields and headdresses that signified those events.
They Dance the Dance, They Chant the Chant is a work close to my
heart. Before the tragedy of Wounded Knee in 1890, the Arapahos
believed that if they danced the Ghost Dance and wore their protective
shirts, they would be saved from the white man's bullets and their
fallen ancestors would return to earth. Rather than depicting the
final outcome of the massacre, the frozen bodies in the snow, I
commemorated Wounded Knee with a trio of warriors dancing and chanting
as they envisioned the return of the Old World that had been lost.
"Women are seminal in my work as they were in my own life ..."
Women are seminal in my work as they were in my own life experience of raising two daughters. The Plains
depicts a mother and her children during the 1870's when the Cheyenne
were herded into reservations and forced to adopt the ways of the white
people. We could not take away their love of the family. In
many cases it was the family pride that made survival possible. I
used my own grandson's face as the model for the sleeping child on her
shoulder.
Changing Woman portrays the Apache rite of passage from child to
woman. The Sunrise Ceremony is similar to the Christian concept
of Conformation. The exhausting weeklong ritual requires the girl
to dance from morning until night around the cane of life, which was
moved farther and farther from her.
"The Sunrise Ceremony is similar to the Christian concept of Conformation."
In my work I choose to represent moments that leads up to or follows
the ritual act rather than the sacred moment. Native Americans
frown upon divulging sacred activities, so in Sundance I show the High Priest painting the legs of a young man before ordaining him into manhood.
This is my work. I hope it touches you as it moves me. It
is my addiction to create it. If I did anything else, I would be
cheating myself. Second to my family, art is my life. And the
histories of Native Americans is what I hope to leave for generations
to come.
M. Barbera - 1999 |
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