PULLMAN, Wash. — Twelve paintings from the Washington State University
Museum of Art permanent collection are among the works featured in the
exhibition “Indian Summers,” on display at the WSU Museum of
Anthropology in College Hall through Dec. 15.
The paintings are part of the Museum of Art’s Griffin Collection, portraits of
prominent eastern Washington residents painted by Worth D. Griffin,
commissioned in 1935 by the Washington State College Board of Regents and
WSC President E.O. Holland. Griffin was chair of the Fine Arts Department
from 1933 until 1958.
The Griffin Collection portraits in the exhibition feature members of the Colville
Confederated Tribes and include “Phillip Evans (Hi Yame Te Ka Likt),” “John
Miller (Spotted Eagle),” “Agnes Andrews,” “Robert Johnson,” “Cleveland
Kamiakin (With Feathers),” “Lucy Kamiakin Owhi,” “Cleveland Kamiakin,
Imotanic (Matches),” “Zephyr Lumpre,” “Elizabeth Friedlander,” “Walter
Cloud (Murdered at Night)” and “Yellow Wolf.”
Other selections from the museum’s Griffin Collection are included in the book
“Indian Summers” by Jeff Creighton, recently published by the WSU Press.
The book is a history of the Nespelem Artists Colony, which Griffin was
instrumental in establishing. The works in the book are from Griffin’s “Pioneer
Series” and include “Knute Davis,” “William Henry Wordon” and “George E.
Hendrick, Old Fiddler,” and the portrait “Frances Whitman Monteith,” wife of
Lapwai official Charles Monteith. It also features several works from the
Museum of Art’s Northwest collection, including Vanessa Helder’s “Snow and
Stubble,” Kenneth Callahan’s “Illwaco Waterfront,” and “East from LaConner”
by Glen Wessels.
Contact Mary Collins, Museum of Anthropology assistant director, at
509/335-4314 with questions about the exhibition. For more information about
the Griffin Collection, call the Museum of Art at 509/335-1910.
shrw239-00
