Monumental David P. Bradley - Feast Day Painting

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Monumental David P. Bradley “Feast Day Gathering,” Signed, Dated & Copyrighted ©1985—60" × 48"

A rare, museum-scale early masterwork by … Read more Monumental David P. Bradley “Feast Day Gathering,” Signed, Dated & Copyrighted ©1985—60" × 48"

A rare, museum-scale early masterwork by David P. Bradley (Minnesota Chippewa Tribe, b. 1954). This major 60" × 48" acrylic-on-canvas tableau is fully signed, dated, and copyrighted “DAVID P. BRADLEY © 85” lower right. Large-format works from Bradley’s pivotal mid-1980s period are exceptionally scarce and highly prized by collectors and institutions.

Set inside a Pueblo adobe interior, the composition depicts a vibrant feast-day gathering rendered in Bradley’s signature narrative realism. Figures of multiple generations share a celebratory meal of melons, breads, stews, and cakes, surrounded by ethnographically faithful details: manta-style garments, concha belts, Pueblo pottery, woven basketry, adobe hearths, and architectural vigas. Bradley’s characteristic sense of humor and cultural commentary appears in the masked Lone Ranger figure seated at the table and the small dachshund sneaking a bone on the floor.

A notable feature is Bradley’s “painting within a painting”: a window scene revealing Pueblo dancers, buffalo figures, and traditional architecture against a Southwestern landscape. This device—emerging in Bradley’s mid-1980s work—connects domestic life to ceremony, history, and communal identity.

This period represents a turning point in Bradley’s development, when his satirical voice, political subtext, and Indigenous modernist vocabulary became fully formed. His works from this era are held in major museum collections, including the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian, the Minneapolis Institute of Art, the Heard Museum, and the Museum of Indian Arts & Culture.

Acrylic on canvas.
Dimensions: 60" H × 48" W (unframed).
Signed, dated, and copyrighted lower right.
Excellent overall condition.
Provenance: Private Chicago Collection.

An exceptional, large-scale Bradley painting—rich in narrative detail, cultural depth, and early-career significance—ideal for collectors of contemporary Indigenous art or Southwestern modernism. See less