Ghost Horse by Woodrow Wilson "Woody" Crumbo, (Potawatomi), 1912-1989
"Woody" Crumbo attended Chilocco Indian Agricultural School. Born near Lexington, Oklahoma, "Woody" Crumbo was orphaned at the age of seven and received no schooling past the third grade. At seventeen he resumed his formal education at the government reservation school at Chilocco. Meanwhile, he received private instruction in art from Anadarko teacher Suzie Peters, who supplied him with materials and taught him the basics of drawing and painting.
Examples of his work are found in many public and private collections, including the Gilcrease and Philbrook museums in Tulsa, the Creek Council House Museum in Okmulgee, the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, the San Francisco Museum of Art, and the Corcoran Gallery, and U.S. Department of the Interior in Washington, D.C. There are two of his works in this exhibition.
Source: Oklahoma Historical Society
For more information on this artist visit: this site.
Untitled by Joan Hill (Chea-Se-Quah) (Creek-Cherokee), 1930-present
Joan Hill (Chea-Se-Quah) is from Muskogee, Oklahoma. Her grandfather, Red Bird Harris, was a noted Creek leader. Many of Hill’s paintings are in public collections, including the National Museum of the American Indian, Smithsonian Institution, New York, New York; Heard Museum, Phoenix, Arizona; Cherokee Heritage Center, Park Hill, Oklahoma; and the Philbrook Museum of Art. There are two of her works in this exhibition.
Source: First American Art Magazine
For more information on this artist, visit: this site.
Fancy Dancer by Woodrow Wilson "Woody" Crumbo (Potawatomi), 1912-1989
"Woody" Crumbo attended Chilocco Indian Agricultural School. He works in oil and egg tempera, as well as in watercolor, sculpture, stained glass, silkscreen, and etching. The largest collection of Crumbo’s work, about 175 paintings, is owned by the Gilcrease Museum in Tulsa, although his work has been exhibited in many museums throughout the United States.
Source: Smithsonian American Art Museum
For more information on this artist, visit: this site.
The Scream by Benjamin Harjo Jr, (Seminole/Absentee-Shawnee), 1945-present
Benjamin Harjo Jr. attended Chilocco Indian Agricultural School, and later the Institute of American Indian Arts. He works in gouache on watercolor paper, conte crayon, pen and ink, and woodcut. The bold color of his work is closely contained and formally ordered within his free compositions. He uses geometric patterns, often incorporating hands and faces into his pictures. His imagery contains clear echoes of Seminole, Navajo, Plains Indian, and Northwest Coast designs, but also frequently references international themes and art forms.
Source: Wheelwright Museum
For more information on this artist, visit this site.
For more information on the Chilocco school, click here.
Woman on Horseback by Virginia Stroud (Cherokee/Creek), 1951-present
Virginia Stroud attended Bacone College. From her own statement, "identity is established by what is familiar to a culture, and the viewer is asked to both recognize the differences through identity and to overlook those differences, thereby enriching the spiritual world by minimizing the distance between themselves and the art."
“I paint for my people. Art is a way for our culture to survive…perhaps the only way. More than anything, I want to become an orator, to share with others the oldest of Indian traditions. I want people to look back at my work just like today we’re looking back at the ledger drawings and seeing how it was then. I’m working one hundred years in front of those people and saying ‘this is how we still do it…we still have our traditions.'”
Source: U.S. Department of State
For more information on this artist, visit this site.
Comanche Horseman by "Doc" Tate Nevaquayah (Comanche), 1932-1996
Joyce Lee "Doc" Tate Nevaquayah was given the name "Tate" when a Christian name was required upon entering the Fort Sill Indian School. His native name is Nevaquaya, which in English means "well-dressed."During his life, Doc Tate was a teacher, minister, lecturer, historian, dancer, composer, singer, flutist, and painter. He had received his high school diploma from the Fort Sill Indian School in Lawton, Oklahoma, and then attended Haskell Indian Institute in Lawrence, Kansas, in 1951-2. He was married and had nine children. He resided on allotted land near Apache, Oklahoma, until his death.
Source: Adobe Gallery
For more information on this artist, visit this site.
For more information on Fort Sill, click here.
Home of John Ross by Joan Hill (Chea-Se-Quah) (Creek-Cherokee) 1930-present
Joan Hill (Chea-Se-Quah) is from Muskogee, Oklahoma. Her grandfather, Red Bird Harris, was a noted Creek leader. Many of Hill’s paintings are in public collections, including the National Museum of the American Indian, Smithsonian Institution, New York, New York; Heard Museum, Phoenix, Arizona; Cherokee Heritage Center, Park Hill, Oklahoma; and the Philbrook Museum of Art. There are two of her works in this exhibition.
Source: First American Art Magazine
For more information on this artist, visit this site.
For more information on John Ross, click here.
Chief on Horseback by Albert Harjo (Creek), 1937-2019
Albert Lee Harjo attended Chilocco Indian Agricultural School. Harjo’s subject matter derives from his own life experiences as well as those of neighbors, friends, and family. He painted in what is recognized as the Bacone style, as established by tribal artists active at Bacone College. There is no erasing or covering up. His paintings use colors and multiple contour lines to define figures and shapes, as opposed to three-dimensional perspective or shading. He worked in tempera and watercolor.
Source: Adobe Gallery
For more information on this artist, visit this site.
For more information on the Chilocco school, click here.
For more information on the Bacone style, click here.
Prayer to the Buffalo by "Doc" Tate Nevaquayah (Comanche), 1932-1996
Along with being a visual artist, Nevaquaya released two recordings, Indian Flute Songs from Comanche Land (1976) and Comanche Flute Music (1979), and appeared in numerous performances around the United States and abroad. He is remembered as a performer, researcher, and teacher, working among the Comanche people as well as other tribes. He taught his three sons how to make and play the courting flute; all are committed to keeping the tradition alive and vital. There are two of his works in this exhibition.
Source: National Endowment for the Arts
For more information on this artist, visit this site.
