Spirit Red Catalog Preview by Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art

fred jones jr. museum of art, university of oklahoma

spirit red: visions of native american artists from the rennard strickland collection

Unknown U.S., Navajo American Flag Rug, 1920s Wool and commercial dyes, 28Âź x 49Ë?

fred jones jr. museum of art, university of oklahoma

Spirit RED

Visions of Native American Artists from the Rennard Strickland Collection

In memory of his mother Adell Tucker Strickland

Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art University of Oklahoma

spirit red: visions of native american artists from the rennard strickland collection

fred jones jr. museum of art, university of oklahoma

Spirit RED Visions of Native American Artists from the Rennard Strickland Collection 9

Foreword: Rennard Strickland’s Artistic Vision, President David L. Boren

Acknowledgments, Ghislain d’Humiéres

Introduction: His Point of View, Mary Jo Watson

Chapter One: The Autobiography of an Art Collection and (incidentally) of the Collector

Chapter Two: From Kiva to iPod: Diversity within Indian Painting

Chapter Three: Native American Pottery

Chapter Four: Native American Beadwork and Baskets

Chapter Five: Masks, Katcinas, Koshares, and Melons

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Chapter Six: Native American Textiles

110

Chapter Seven: Indian Media Art and Poster Collection

117

Chapter Eight: The Gift

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Conclusion

Unknown U.S., Navajo Corn Yei Rug, c. 1927 (detail, see page 109)

spirit red: visions of native american artists from the rennard strickland collection

fred jones jr. museum of art, university of oklahoma

Rennard Strickland's Artistic Vision f o r e word

Dav i d L . B o re n President, The University of Oklahoma The University of Oklahoma is a leader in the academic study of Native American history and art. OU is among the top three comprehensive universities in the U.S. in the number of Native American students enrolled, and it teaches more Native American languages than any other American university. Its collections of Native American history and material culture are among the most extensive in the world. In the fall of 2008 the University of Oklahoma School of Art and Art History announced a new Ph.D. program in art history. This unique program, the first of its kind, has two distinct emphases: Native American art history and Art of the American West, and OU’s combined university collections provide rich resources for research and publication opportunities for faculty, students, and scholars. As you look through this catalogue and visit the exhibition of the Rennard Strickland Collection, you will enjoy a glimpse into the mind of the collector and learn how his intelligence and artistic vision shaped his collection into one that powerfully reflects the Native heritage of Oklahoma. This Muskogee native has excelled in everything that he has done – as a debater, author, scholar, attorney, professor, and collector. Rennard Strickland’s life has been marked by his constant commitment to excellence. The University of Oklahoma is deeply grateful for his loyalty to this institution and to his home state. Rennard Strickland’s generous gift of his extraordinary personal collection to the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art further strengthens the museum as one of the most important repositories of Native American art in the entire nation. T. C. Cannon U.S., Kiowa/Caddo/Choctaw, 1946–1978 Anadarko Princess Waiting for the Bus, 1977 Lithograph, 30¹/₁₆ x 22⅜˝

spirit red: visions of native american artists from the rennard strickland collection

fred jones jr. museum of art, university of oklahoma

Acknowledgments Gh i s la i n d ’ H u m i è re s Wylodean and Bill Saxon Director, Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art I would like to join President Boren in expressing my gratitude to Rennard Strickland for his amazing gift to the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art and the University of Oklahoma. This addition of major contemporary Native American pieces to our permanent collection, as well as the Eugene B. Adkins Collection, will escalate our institution to the level of leading museums in this field and will also give our students a unique opportunity to better understand and appreciate Native American art. I would also like to thank Dr. Mary Jo Watson and Gail Kana Anderson for their help making this exhibition and catalogue possible. Special thanks goes out to all the museum staff members for their hard work in achieving the highest quality with our programs. Finally, I would like to thank Dr. Ann E. Marshall, Director of Collections, and Diana Pardue, Curator of Collections, as well as Marcus Monenerkit and Sharon Moore, registrars, from the Heard Museum in Phoenix, Arizona, for their friendly and professional collaboration in celebrating Native American art. This collection serves as a major cornerstone in the museum’s multicultural foundation and its upcoming expansion, making OU a national center of Native American studies.

T. C. Cannon U.S., Kiowa/Caddo/Choctaw, 1946–1978 Collector #5 or Man in Wicker Chair, n.d. (detail, see page 20)

spirit red: visions of native american artists from the rennard strickland collection

His Point of View I n t r oduct ion

M a ry Jo Wat son Regents Professor and Director, OU School of Art and Art History Curator, Native American Art, Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art Rennard Strickland is a nationally and internationally known law professor and legal historian, who is considered a visionary and pioneer because he introduced the study of Indian law as a subject at major American universities. He is currently Senior Scholar in Residence at the University of Oklahoma Law Center and Philip H. Knight Distinguished Professor of Law Emeritus, University of Oregon School of Law. Remarkably, with a full and successful career in Indian law and with honors and awards too numerous to mention, Rennard Strickland’s passion for Native American art is equally intense. Of Osage and Cherokee heritage, Strickland has written and lectured extensively on both law and the arts. And during the past several decades he has developed an exquisite eye for collecting some of the finest Native art of the past and current century. This exhibition offers highlights of his collection of more than two hundred pieces, collected during five decades and now gifted to the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art at the University of Oklahoma. Collecting started early for Rennard. He shares the story that as a young boy he made his first art purchase in his hometown of Muskogee, Oklahoma, from the Creek/Pawnee painter and educator Acee Blue Eagle. It is evident that he was enthralled with Indian art from that time forward. The collection is enriched by a deep breadth of media including painting, weaving, pottery, baskets, sculpture, beadwork, photography, and different forms

Minisa Crumbo Halsey U.S., Creek/Potawatomi, b. 1942 Portrait of Rennard Strickland, 1997 (detail) Pastel on paper, 19¾ x 25½˝

fred jones jr. museum of art, university of oklahoma

spirit red: visions of native american artists from the rennard strickland collection

of printmaking. Equally impressive are his choices of the artists collected, whose names read like a compendium of artists in a Native American art history text. His knowledge of traditions, myth, and Native spiritual values are combined with a penetrating insight into tribal aesthetics. Rennard Strickland is a pioneer both in the field of Indian law and in collecting the finest traditional and innovative arts of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Examples of the adventurous artists he collected from the first part of the twentieth century include San Ildefonso artists Julian and Maria Martinez, Tonita Peña, and Zia artist Rafael Medina. Later artists include Joe Herrera (Cochiti), Fritz Scholder (Luiseño), and Narciso Abeyta (Navajo). Other well-known artists outside the Southwest include Rick Bartow (Yurok) and James Lavadour (Walla Walla). Other pieces by later twentieth-century artists include satirical images by the California Maidu artist Harry Fonseca and the recent acquisition of a painted gourd by Joseph Erb (Cherokee), featuring a portrait of a traditionally dressed Cherokee warrior who is using an iPod. Rennard also has an astute sense of humor which is reflected in his collection. Richard Glazer Danay (Mohawk) and Hulleah Tsinhnahjinnie (Diné/Seminole/Muscogee) are both artists who take an unusual view of the conjunction of Native American life with the rest of the nation. Artist Lisa Rutherford (Cherokee) was chosen to make the pottery piece he received from the Cherokee Nation to honor the publication of his fortieth book. The individual on the pot bears a striking resemblance to Rennard – a resemblance he admirably and humorously describes in his narration. His collection is also distinctive for its inclusion of distinguished women artists. During the 1940s and 1950s there were relatively few commercial Indian women artists. As the twentieth century progressed, and especially from the 1960s forward, many talented women began showing and acquiring ribbons, medals, and cash prizes for their art work.

Joan Brown U.S., Cherokee/Creek, b. 1945 Wild Onions, 1984 Watercolor on board (detail, see page 104)

fred jones jr. museum of art, university of oklahoma

Rennard’s collection includes the leading Native American women artists of the twentieth and twenty-first century. Painters, including Joan Brown (Cherokee), Minisa Crumbo Halsey (Creek/Potawatomi), Helen Hardin (Santa Clara Pueblo), Joan Hill (Cherokee/ Creek), Mary Gay Osceola (Florida Seminole), Tonita Peña (San Ildefonso), Hulleah Tsinhnahjinnie (Diné/Seminole/Muscogee), Ruthe Blalock Jones (Delaware/Shawnee/Peoria), as well as pottery makers Maria Martinez (San Ildefonso) and Annabelle Sixkiller Mitchell (Cherokee) to mention a few. Other women artists represented in his collection unfortunately remain unidentified, yet their works show profound creativity and innovation in weaving and beading. Another unique feature of the Strickland collection is the inclusion of works by four former directors of the Bacone Indian Art Department. Located in Muskogee, Oklahoma, Bacone College, now 129 years old, was established by the Northern American Baptist Church to educate Indians. Long after the school was founded, the art department was established in the 1930s aided by the influence of a Chickasaw woman from the Language Arts Department, Ataloa McLendon. Acee Blue Eagle became its first director. Some of the succeeding directors include the artists Solomon McCombs (Creek), Chief Terry Saul (Choctaw/Chickasaw), and Dick West (Cheyenne), who influenced a great number of artists during his tenure between 1947 and 1970. West was followed by his student Ruthe Blalock Jones. She retired in the fall of 2008, and the current interim director of art is the painter Tony Tiger (Sac & Fox/Seminole), who graduated in 2007 from the University of Oklahoma with a Master of Fine Arts degree with an emphasis in painting. In the following pages, Rennard Strickland presents a precise and intimate view of his art collection. Along with his legendary legal work, Rennard’s art collection defines his life. The legal precedents he continues to set in university systems and the artists whose work he collects reflect a monumental tribute to his intellect and foresight. He now refers to these artists as “revolutionaries” and “warriors” – those who carry forward the ideas and the images of what it is to be Native American. He should also be included in this group. For Oklahoma and national Native American art history, Rennard Strickland is a touchstone, an example and source of energy and knowledge. He has shared this energy and knowledge through numerous books, exhibitions, lectures, and articles, and now he shares his inspired collection of Native American art with the university, the people of Oklahoma, and visitors from around the world. We thank him for this gift that will inspire generations to come.

following spread: William Rabbit; U.S., Cherokee The Cave Painter, 1981 Watercolor and salt on paper (detail, see page 49)

spirit red: visions of native american artists from the rennard strickland collection

fred jones jr. museum of art, university of oklahoma

spirit red: visions of native american artists from the rennard strickland collection

The Autobiography of an Art Collection and (incidentally) of the Collector c h a pter

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R e n na r d St r ic k l a n d I am, like most Americans whose families have been in this country for at least three or four generations, of mixed-blood ancestry. My European heritage consists primarily of English and German on my father’s side, French and English on my mother’s. My Native American heritage consists of Osage on my mother’s side and Cherokee on my father’s. I am assured that there were no two tribes whose relations have been rockier than the tribes of my parents. The group of Cherokees was originally sent in the 1810s and 1820s out to Arkansas and the Indian Territory because the land was “unoccupied.” The only problem was that it wasn’t! The land was the Osage summer range and hunting grounds, and the Claremont Band of Osage occupied much of it. The wars between the Osage and the Western or Arkansas Cherokee before the Trail of Tears were as bloody as any fought on the high plains. The 1866 treaty of Fort Smith required the Cherokees to dispose of portions of their lands because of their alliance with the Confederacy. The Osage purchased one million acres of Cherokee land. My mother used to say to my father: “Jim, you Cherokees thought of yourselves as ‘civilized’ and wanted to keep the rich, alluvial bottom lands that would grow anything. And so, you sold the Osages the blackjack, hill country – that would grow only one thing– OIL!” She would continue, saying, “Just goes to show you that a ‘savage’ Osage can outsmart a ‘civilized’ Cherokee any day of the week.”

Acee Blue Eagle U.S., Creek/Pawnee, 1907–1959 Warrior with Shield, 1932 Watercolor on brown butcher paper, 11⅓ x 7⅛˝

fred jones jr. museum of art, university of oklahoma

spirit red: visions of native american artists from the rennard strickland collection

fred jones jr. museum of art, university of oklahoma

I am often asked my favorite artist or work from my collection. I reply that asking that question of a collector is like asking a father to name his favorite child, especially if he has fathered two hundred children. I suspect that a father does, indeed, have some favorites and, I think, one of my favorite artists is T. C. Cannon. Two of his works, Anadarko Princess Waiting for the Bus, and Collector #5 or Man in Wicker Chair, are among my favorites. The Japanese woodcut made from a Cannon painting was executed by a master oriental woodcut printmaker. In this work the Osage is seated in a wicker chair between an open window and Vincent van Gogh’s wheat field, with a Navajo rug on the floor. The Osage collector has a look on his face that reminds me of the look my mother always had when she said to my father: “Jim, a ‘savage’ Osage can outsmart a ‘civilized’ Cherokee any day of the week.” The Anadarko Princess lithograph is a brightly colored print in which an American Indian sits holding an umbrella against the sun’s rays while she waits, and waits, and waits. As I look over the exhibition Spirit Red, I remember the very first painting with which the collection was begun. I was eight or nine at the time. My hometown, Muskogee, Oklahoma, is the site of Bacone College with perhaps the most famous Indian arts program in the country, where certainly the most gifted Native American artists headed the department or instructed equally important student artists. These include a “who’s who” of Oklahoma Indian art, ranging from Woody Crumbo to Dick West with Acee Blue Eagle, Chief Terry Saul, Solomon McCombs, Joan Hill, Ruthe Blalock Jones, Willard Stone, and Cecil Dick added to the list. Of these Bacone artists, perhaps the most flamboyant was Acee Blue Eagle, who performed throughout Europe including (he self-reported) a stint at pre-war Oxford. In any event, after the war, Blue Eagle found himself performing around the Muskogee area at churches, Cub Scout/Boy Scout troops, and on a local children’s television program aired by the then-fledgling Griffin Broadcast Network out of the east side of Muskogee. It was only natural that he would have been invited to lecture at the Wednesday Night Fellowship Dinner at St. Paul’s Methodist Church, which my family attended. My mother was in charge of the dinner, or at least the dishes that each family brought to be shared. There was an exhibit of Acee Blue Eagle’s watercolor paintings at the front of the old social hall, and I remember to this day that the only one I could ever hope to purchase was entitled, Warrior with Shield. It was $12.50 – a handsome sum for the late 1940s.

facing page: T. C. Cannon U.S., Kiowa/Caddo/Choctaw, 1946–1978 Collector #5 or Man in Wicker Chair, n.d. Woodcut on paper, 25 x 20˝ Collection of the Heard Museum, Phoenix, Arizona. Gift of Rennard Strickland. Photo: Craig Smith

above: Mr. and Mrs. Arthur Strickland with son Ruel James Strickland, c. 1906 below: Mr. and Mrs. Americus Tucker with daughter Adell Tucker Strickland, c. 1915

spirit red: visions of native american artists from the rennard strickland collection

From Kiva to iPod: Diversity within Indian Painting c h a pter

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The revolutionary visions of Native American artists that are represented in Spirit Red cover more that seven centuries, with works dating from 1300 to 2009. The works range from Hopi artist Fred Kabotie’s painting of the Kiva Mural Decorations at Awatovi and Kawaika-a, to the contemporary artist Joseph Erb’s painted gourd of Cherokee warriors listening to an iPod. Fred Kabotie’s painting was commissioned by the Denver Art Museum in the late 1930s as a study for larger murals to reproduce the decorations of a Hopi mural, such as Plate D in Kiva Mural Decorations at Awatovi and Kawaika-a by Watson Smith (Cambridge, Mass.: Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University, 1952). This painting later traveled to Treasure Island in San Francisco as a part of the Golden Gate Exposition in 1939. The Joseph Erb gourd was described by the Cherokee artist as “a piece that I did some two years ago, after we started using iPods to show some of our Cherokee children some Cherokee animal stories and songs.” The red gourd features ancient warriors working on the most contemporary electronic tools.

Joseph Erb U.S., Cherokee, b. 1974 Gourd with Warriors Addressing Modern Technology, 2006 Gourd with pigment, 9¼ x 12½˝

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spirit red: visions of native american artists from the rennard strickland collection

Cave and Kiva Painting The earliest image in the collection is a contemporary vision of a prehistoric cave painting. Rock art, cave art, and kiva art, especially in the Southwest, were the very first forms of Native American painting. William Rabbit, Cherokee, paid homage to his artistic ancestors at the beginning of his career in his 1981 painting simply entitled The Cave Painter. Mirac Creepingbear, a Kiowa, Pawnee, and Arapaho artist, also paid homage to an earlier generation in his 1983 work Brothers of the Wind.

Fred Kabotie U.S., Hopi, 1900–1986 Awatovi/Kawaika-a—A Kiva Mural Study, 1936–37 Tempera on brown paper, 20 x 26˝

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Publication Notes: Copyright © 2009 The University of Oklahoma. This catalogue has been published in conjunction with the exhibition Spirit Red: Visions of Native American Artists from the Rennard Strickland Collection at the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art, June 4–September 13, 2009. No part of this publication may be reproduced or used in any form without the written consent of the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art. Catalogue author: Rennard Strickland Catalogue editors: Gail Kana Anderson and Mary Jo Watson Catalogue design: Eric H. Anderson Editorial assistant: Jo Ann Reece and Mary Jane Rutherford Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art, The University of Oklahoma 555 Elm Avenue, Norman, Oklahoma 73019-3003 phone: 405.325.3272; fax: 325.7696 www.ou.edu/fjjma Wylodean and Bill Saxon Director: Ghislain d’Humières Deputy Director: Gail Kana Anderson Curator of Native American Art: Mary Jo Watson

facing page: Victor C. Lawasewa; U.S., Zuni Painted Deerskin Hide, c. 1920; Hide and pigment (detail, see page 50) cover: Dan Namingha; U.S., Hopi, b. 1950 Chanters at Dusk, 1983; Collage (detail, see page 69) pages 2 and 3: Joan Hill; U.S., Cherokee/Creek, b. 1930 Bridge to the Other World, 1967; Oil on canvas (detail, see page 55); Collection of the Heard Museum, Phoenix, Arizona. Gift of Rennard Strickland. pages 16 and 17: William Rabbit; U.S., Cherokee, b. 1946; The Cave Painter, 1981; Watercolor and salt on paper (detail, see page 49) pages 122 and 123: Fred Kabotie; U.S., Hopi, 1900–1986 Awatovi/Kawaika-a—A Kiva Mural Study, 1936–37 Tempera on brown paper (detail, see page 48) back page: Unknown, U.S., Hopi Hopi Clown Eating Watermelon Katcina, 1989 (detail, see page 102)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2009925888

isbn: 978-9717187-5-3

photography credits and copyrights: Photography (unless noted): Konrad Eek All images unless otherwise noted are © Courtesy of the artist. Every effort has been made to locate and contact the copyright holders of the objects herein illustrated. If omissions are noted, please contact the publisher; corrections will be made in subsequent printings. T. C. Cannon: © Joyce Cannon Yi, Executor of the T. C. Cannon Estate Fritz Scholder: © Courtesy the Estate of Fritz Scholder Allan Houser: © Chiinde, llc

pottery group from page 74: 1. Albert Vigil; U.S., San Ildefonso, b. 1927; and Josephine Vigil; U.S., San Ildefonso, b. 1927 Pot, 1978; Ceramic, 2¾ x 4¼˝ 2. Lucy Martin Lewis; U.S., Acoma, 1898–1992 Small Pot, 1984; 3¼ x 4½˝ 3. Rachel Sahmie; U.S., Hopi, b. 1955 Pot with Bear Paw Motif, n.d.; Ceramic, 3½ x 4¼˝ 4. Josephine Vigil; U.S., San Ildefonso, b. 1927 Small Black Pot, n.d.; Ceramic, 3 x 3½˝ 5. Stella Shutiva; U.S., Acoma, 1939–1997 White Corregated Pot, n.d.; Ceramic, 3½ x 5˝ 6. Verla Dewakuku; U.S., Hopi Pot with Bear Paw Motif, 1982; Ceramic, 3½ x 3¼˝ 7. Iris Youvella Nampeyo; U.S., Hopi, b. 1944 Small Corn Pot, n.d.; Ceramic, 3½ x 3½˝ 8. Grace Medicine Flower; U.S., Santa Clara, b. 1938; and Camillo Tafoya; U.S., Santa Clara, 1902–1995; Pot, n.d.; Ceramic, 2½ x 4½˝

3 1

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This catalogue was printed by the University of Oklahoma Printing Services and is issued by the University of Oklahoma. 1,000 copies have been printed and distributed at no cost to the taxpayers of Oklahoma.

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