His art was lost to time. Now it is on display at Tacoma museum and Governor’s Mansion
The work of a Washington Native American artist thought lost to the ages after he died in 1988 has been found and, beginning Sunday, will be under the bright lights at the Washington State History Museum .
Eugene Landry was disabled by spinal meningitis as a teenager but summoned his talent through barely functioning hands to create art that placed his Native American heritage within the styles of 20th century classical painting. His art was uniquely his own but not fully appreciated during his lifetime, say those who knew him.
After his death, the bulk of his unsold work was lost and his legacy consisted of a few paintings held by collectors, his relatives and members of his Shoalwater Bay Indian Tribe on Washington's Willapa Bay.
Thanks to a dogged art detective, his work was pulled from the attic of a decaying building and restored.
What is Native art?
The WSHM exhibit of paintings and drawings not only exposes Landry's work to the public but poses a question in its title: "What is Native Art? Eugene Landry and the Creative Spirit."
For Landry's cousin, Spanaway resident and Puyallup tribal member Gabriel Landry, the show is gratifying and emotional.
"I'm a bit overwhelmed by all of it, because it's been so long," Gabriel Landry said Thursday. "I assumed it was never going to happen. I assumed that it would just be lost forever."
For the artist who rediscovered Landry's art, Judith Altruda, the WSHM show and another at the Governor's Mansion represent a wider recognition for Landry, who she has been championing since finding the trove of lost art in 2019 near the reservation.
"The state of Washington is really stepping up and saying, we appreciate learning about Gene," she said. "We recognize his talent and his story that was not widely known."
A life cut short
Landry was born in 1937 and grew up on the Shoalwater reservation. His biological parents were members of the nearby Hoh and Quileute nations. As an infant, he was adopted by Alfred and Myrtle Landry.
In 1955, the 18-year-old was suddenly struck with spinal meningitis. He spent the next two years in the notorious Cushman Indian Hospital on the Puyallup Tribe of Indians reservation in Tacoma. When he was released, he no longer had use of his legs.
After he left Cushman, Landry began formal art studies at the Leon Derbyshire School of Fine Art in Seattle. The veteran artist's post-Impressionistic style heavily influenced the young artist.
Later, a fall left Landry without the use of his dominant hand, and he had to relearn painting using his other hand. In 1965, he married Sharon Billingsley. The couple moved to Tacoma in 1966.
Altruda, a longtime Tokeland resident who briefly met Landry in the 1980s, first held a show of the work she rediscovered in 2022 and then another in Astoria in 2023, where she now lives. WSHM and Altruda co-curated the current show, using both artifacts and items from the museum's vast collection.
The new show is presented within the context of the Shoalwater tribe's history, the Derbyshire School, the Cushman Hospital and other elements.
"Gene's story is the story of the Shoalwater Bay Tribe in their efforts to establish the reservation," WSHM curator Gwen Whiting said Thursday. "It's this amazing set of stories that runs parallel, and it's all about results and not giving up."
Whiting, who grew up in Washington, recalls visiting Landry's father's "Smoke Signal" gift shop on the reservation.
"There were no practitioners of Native art in his world," Altruda said of Landry's art education. "There may have been some basket making, but there was not carving going on ... for all of the reasons of assimilation."
Landry's work shows a real-time approach to his art, neither shying away from nor focused on Native American subject matter. His style was his own.
"But he took that and he painted his world and the people in his world," Altruda said.
Landry gravitated to portraiture and many were of his family and fellow tribal members.
"He painted them as everyday, ordinary, how they look all the time, not conforming to any kind of image that might have been in the popular mind of what an Indian dresses like," she said.
"He's really exploring identity and looking at, what does it mean to be a Native artist at a time that Native artists are not getting a lot of mainstream recognition," Whiting said.
On display
Some 30 of Landry's paintings and drawings are in the show and include portraits, landscapes and still lifes. Some of the latter show a pencil with a string attached. Landry used it to draw with, the string acting as a catch for the artist should he drop it. Whiting says it's a recurring motif in his still lifes.
The show makes use of some of Landry's sketchbooks — one shows a drawing of Pike Place Market — and tools. His easel sits in a corner of the exhibit. Work by Billingsley is on display as is a painting by Derbyshire.
"He was a major influence in Gene and Sharon's life and lots of other artists," Altruda said. "He's one of those people that really does need to be remembered."
The State History Museum show is on view through March 2025. A smaller selection of Landry's work is part of a group show now on display at the Governor's Mansion in Olympia. Tours of the show and the mansion can be arranged through the foundation. The show will remain at the mansion into 2026, Altruda said.
If you go
What: "What is Native Art? Eugene Landry and the Creative Spirit"
Where: Washington State History Museum, 1911 Pacific Ave., Tacoma.
When: Sept. 22-March 30.
Hours:
Admission: Adult $14; Senior (age 65+) $11; Student (age 6-18 or older with current high school ID) $11; Child (age 5 and under) free; Military (active duty or retired with ID) $11.
