Badlands

Urban Couch was a graduate of the Minneapolis School of Art and Design (now MCAD) and held numerous teaching positions. Interest in Native American Studies informed the methods and subject matter of his artistic practice. In the 1960s, Couch often incorporated large patches of vibrant color into his abstract works. Here he uses bold, jagged edges of color to convey the landscape of the Western Dakotas, sacred to indigenous populations for millennia. The Lakȟóta call the land Makȟóšiča (mah-koh shee-chah), for its dry and rugged terrain that has resulted from millions of years of natural deposition and erosion.