Kay WalkingStick

The Neuberger Museum of Art welcomed Kay WalkingStick, the self-described Cherokee painter who created the mixed-media charcoal and gouache drawing on paper, L’Alpi e Le Gambi (1998), that was on view as part of The Friends at 50: Selections from the Collection exhibition at the Neuberger Museum of Art in Spring 2022.

The varied renderings of landscape in WalkingStick’s work is the thread that weaves together the many painterly directions her art has taken over the last 50 years. During this Artist Talk, live at the Neuberger Museum on April 28, 2022, WalkingStick discusses her work and focus on the American Landscape and its metaphorical significances not only to Native Americans but also to all of our citizenry..


Generous support for The Friends at 50 Artist Talk series is provided by ArtsWestchester, with support from the Westchester County Government.

Introduction by Neuberger Museum of Art Director Tracy Fitzpatrick.

About the Artist

Kay WalkingStick, the Cherokee/Anglo artist has had over 30 solo shows in the US and Europe. Her work is in the permanent collections of the Metropolitan Museum in NYC, the Museum of Canada in Ottowa, CA, the Israel Museum in Jerusalem, The Newark Museum in Newark, NJ, the Whitney Museum of American Art and many other museums across the US. Hales Gallery represents her work in NYC, and Froelick Gallery in Portland, Oregon, represents her work on the West Coast. WalkingStick taught painting and drawing to graduate and undergraduate students at Cornell University for 17 years where she is now an Emerita Professor. She was given an honorary doctorate by both Pratt Institute and by Arcadia University. She is a fellow of the National Academy of Design and the American Academy of Arts & Science. In 2015 her retrospective of 75 paintings and drawings covering the years from 1970 to 2015 opened at the Smithsonian, National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C. Since closing in September of 2016 the exhibition traveled to various venues across the country including the Gilcrease Museum in Tulsa, Oklahoma, the Montclair Museum in Montclair, NJ, The Art Institute in Dayton, Ohio, the Kalamazoo Art Museum, in Kalamazoo MI, and the Heard Museum in Phoenix, AZ. The show was listed by Hyperallergic on-Line Magazine as one of the best 15 exhibitions to open nationwide in 2016. The NY Times gave the exhibit a fullpage review written by Holland Cotter when it was shown at the Montclair Museum. WalkingStick and her husband, artist Dirk Bach, live and paint in a townhouse in Easton, Pa. Ms. WalkingStick exhibited her work, an overview from 1970 onward, at the Froelick Gallery in September 2021. She also had an exhibition of her recent landscape paintings at Hales Gallery in February and March 2022.


Generous support for The Friends at 50 Artist Talk series is provided by ArtsWestchester, with support from the Westchester County Government.

About the Exhibition

The Friends at 50: Selections from the Collection is a celebration of one very important aspect of the work of the Friends of the Neuberger Museum of Art, a dedicated group of local, regional, and national supporters who help the museum grow and thrive. The exhibition is comprised of major works of art that have come into the Neuberger Museum’s collection through the efforts of the Friends. The objects are remarkable in their breadth and depth and show aspects of the marvelous generosity of the Friends organization over the last fifty years.

The exhibition is on view March 9 through June 12, 2022.