Taste and Spit

Skip to main content
© Hock E Aye Vi Edgar Heap of Birds. Image courtesy of Fort Gansevoort. For educational purpose…
Taste and Spit
© Hock E Aye Vi Edgar Heap of Birds. Image courtesy of Fort Gansevoort. For educational purposes only.
© Hock E Aye Vi Edgar Heap of Birds
Artist/Maker (Cheyenne and Arapaho Nation, born 1954)
Date1990
MediumPastel on paper
DimensionsSheet: 22 × 30 in. (55.9 × 76.2 cm) Frame: 25 1/2 × 33 1/4 × 1 5/8 in. (64.8 × 84.5 × 4.1 cm)
Credit LinePurchase, William G. Roehrick '34 Art Acquisition and Preservation Fund
Object number2020.6.1
On view
DescriptionHock E Aye Vi Edgar Heap of Birds’ Taste and Spit is part of a series of the artist’s “Wall Lyrics” that evoke various elements of Native American oppression by the United States government. Heap of Birds has emphasized that the “Lyrics” are open to interpretation, and that they are “mostly personal reflections in a coded language.” However you may interpret it, the language and scratching lines of Taste and Spit evoke both an emotional and tactile response. This work along with No Zone Today—another drawing in the Wellin’s collection—are representative of Heap of Birds’ oeuvre, as they exemplify the artist’s continued use of language in his conceptual art since the 1970s.

Additional Details

Provenance 2020: Hamilton College (Ruth and Elmer Wellin Museum of Art), by purchase from Fort Gansevoort.
Markings Embossed: "UTRECHT 100% RAG HOLLAND" at lower right.
Signature Signed "E(h?)" at lower right in pastel.
© Hock E Aye Vi Edgar Heap of Birds. Image courtesy of Fort Gansevoort. For educational purpose…
Hock E Aye Vi Edgar Heap of Birds
Date: 1990
Medium: Pastel on paper
Object number: 2020.6.2
© Jeffrey Gibson. Image courtesy of the Ruth and Elmer Museum of Art at Hamilton College, Clint…
Jeffrey Gibson
Date: 2018
Medium: Single-channel video
Object number: 2018.6
© Jeffrey Gibson. Image courtesy of Sikkema Jenkins & Co. For educational purposes only.
Jeffrey Gibson
Date: 2019
Medium: Digital print, silkscreen, and collage, with gloss varnish, in custom-color frame
Object number: 2020.3.1
© Jeffrey Gibson. Image courtesy of Sikkema Jenkins & Co. For educational purposes only.
Jeffrey Gibson
Date: 2019
Medium: Digital print, silkscreen, and collage, with gloss varnish, in custom-color frame
Object number: 2020.3.2
Photo by John Bentham.
Walter Williams
Date: 1964
Medium: Color woodcut
Object number: 1984.394
Photo by John Bentham.
Walter Williams
Date: 1966
Medium: Color woodcut
Object number: 1984.393
Photograph by John Bentham.
Charles E. Burchfield
Date: March 1916
Medium: Watercolor and graphite on paper
Object number: 2016.1.1
Image courtesy of the Ruth and Elmer Wellin Museum of Art at Hamilton College, Clinton, NY. Pho…
Charles E. Burchfield
Date: April 1, 1916
Medium: Watercolor and pencil on paper
Object number: 2016.1.2
Composition with Yellow Stripe
Dorothy Shakespear
Date: 1919
Medium: Watercolor on paper
Object number: 1994.94
Photograph by John Bentham.
Dorothy Shakespear
Date: 1937
Medium: Watercolor on paper, mounted on cardboard
Object number: 1996.10
Photo by John Bentham.
Dorothy Shakespear
Date: before 1939
Medium: Pencil and watercolor
Object number: INV.950