
Gary Carter(born 1939)Battle of Adobe Walls 1874 (Isa-Tai Bad Medicine) 30 x 40in
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Gary Carter (born 1939)
signed, dated and inscribed '© Gary Carter CA 86' (lower right) and signed again and inscribed with title (on the reverse)
oil on panel
30 x 40in
Painted in 1986.
Footnotes
Provenance
The artist.
Acquired by the late owner from the above, 1986.
Exhibited
Kerrville, Texas, Cowboy Artists of America Museum, Cowboy Artists of America Salute Texas Exhibit: In Celebration of the Texas Sesquicentennial (1836-1986), 1986, p. 7, illustrated (as Battle of Adobe Walls 1874)
The present work depicts the Second Battle of Adobe Walls in 1874. The work was executed by the artist on the occasion of the Texas Sesquicentennial which was commemorated by an exhibition at the Cowboy Artists of America Museum, Kerrville, Texas. In the published exhibition catalogue the artist prepared a detailed description for the subject of this work:
"1874—The Comanche, Kiowa, and southern Cheyennes united to drive away white buffalo hunters who were destroying the southern herd—this southern herd was the indians commissary. The white hunters built a trading post just off the Canadian River 60 miles N.W. of present day Amarillo.
The Indians were inspired by a Comanche medicine man named Isa-Tai who told them they would be bullet-proof and would be able to kill the white men while they slept.
The white men were very much aware that pre-dawn when the 700 warriors swept in—the white hunters were deadly with their Sharps buffalo rifles and spoiled Isa-Tai's medicine—even a few dead Indians were considered a disaster and Isa-Tai (all painted with yellow earth and safe brush head ornament) was driven away by angry warriors. There were less than 30 white people at the trading post including one white woman—young Quanah Parker also led the warriors."1
1 Cowboy Artists of America Salute Texas Exhibit: In Celebration of the Texas Sesquicentennial (1836-1986), Kerrville, Texas, 1986, p. 7.