The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of July 8, 2026

A horizontally oriented pastel drawing creates a hazy scene in light blue and lavender, depicting a stylized antlered creature facing right. Outlined in thin yellow and teal lines, the figure contains a bold red line looping in the center and curving toward the mouth. Small, faint white stick figures of people and animals float inside the body. The textured, atmospheric composition makes the animal appear to dissolve into the surrounding paper.

Punk Petroglyph (Heart Line)

1984

Truman Lowe

(Ho-Chunk, 1944–2019)
America
pastel on paper
Sheet: 55.9 x 76.2 cm (22 x 30 in.)
Sundry Art - Miscellaneous Fund 2025.246
© Truman T. Lowe Estate
Location: 101B Prints & Drawings

Did You Know?

In addition to his prolific career as an artist Truman Lowe taught sculpture at the University of Wisconsin-Madison for 35 years and was the founding curator of contemporary art at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian.

Description

In this drawing, Truman Lowe rendered the outline of a buck in bold yellow. The animal appears against powdery pastel layers applied in repeating marks. In contrast to their color and smoothness, a spare blood-red line connects it to the outside world. Called heartlines, these were a prominent feature in ancient Indigenous rock art—a longstanding interest of and inspiration to the artist. Lowe used pastel frequently throughout his long career, which involved not only his artistic practice, but also decades spent as an educator and curator. Here, he used drawing to evoke sculptural qualities of petroglyphs, and to commemorate the wildlife of the Wisconsin forests where he was raised and where his people had lived for generations.
  • still/emerging: Native American Works on Paper. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 1-June 7, 2026).
  • {{cite web|title=Punk Petroglyph (Heart Line)|url=false|author=Truman Lowe|year=1984|access-date=08 July 2026|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2025.246