From Oscar Howe to Charles Loloma to Maria Martinez, dozens of American Indian artists have distinguished themselves during the past century, but almost none has pierced the consciousness of the broader public.
A significant exception was Navajo painter R.C. Gorman, who accomplished the feat of expanding Indian painting traditions while developing a strikingly contemporary style that appealed to art museums and everyday buyers.
His images of Navajo women and tribal motifs in a range of media including painting, drawing and lithography built his reputation, but it was the ubiquitous reproductions of them on posters and calendars and elsewhere that gave his work such an extensive reach.
It also didn’t hurt that he had a flair for self-promotion and an affinity for celebrities, earning him comparisons to Andy Warhol.
In the mid-1970s, Gorman orchestrated an attention-grabbing campaign placing bumper stickers on cars around Taos that read, “Who is R.C. Gorman?”
The famed painter died Nov. 3 in an Albuquerque hospital from complications of a blood infection following a fall in his home in Las Colonias. He was 74.
Gorman was born near Canyon de Chelly and raised on the surrounding reservation. His family story mirrors the history of the entire Navajo people, who have managed to overcome a tumultuous history, assert their identity and adapt to contemporary society.
Gorman’s great-grandfather, Peshlakai, a noted Navajo leader, survived the infamous Long Walk in the winter of 1864, later acted as mediator between the tribe and the federal government, and taught silversmithing to his people as way to make a living.
That gift for art was passed down to succeeding generations of the family, including Gorman’s father, Carl, who also was a noted painter in addition to serving as a member of the legendary World War II Code Talkers.
After university studies in the 1950s, including a stint in Mexico City, where he was particularly influenced by the work of Diego Rivera, Gorman began developing a style that paid homage to traditional Indian painting but moved well beyond it.
He created a simple, direct, highly graphic approach that lent itself to reproduction and possessed a certain pop sensibility, another reason he was sometimes compared to Warhol. Perhaps most important, Gorman’s imagery was immediately recognizable as his own.
“So distinctive is the Gorman image that like (Georgia) O’Keeffe, he could if he chose sign his pieces on the back or not at all,” wrote Edward Jacobson in a foreword to a 1981 book of the artist’s drawings.
Jacobson’s reference to O’Keeffe is hardly a coincidence. Both painters did more than almost anyone else in the latter half of the 20th century to define what many people think of – rightly or wrongly – as Southwest art and advance its extraordinary popularity.
Although both artists came from very different backgrounds, they shared some key qualities, including a deep affinity for the land and people of New Mexico, and an instinctive ability to create iconic images of both.
It is impossible to understand why certain artists become so incredibly famous and others don’t, but these two painters created works that resonate with the general public.
Critics certainly have taken their shots at Gorman. And this is understandable, because his work comes off sometimes as shallow and overly commercial.
But what seems clear is that Gorman’s work, like Southwest art in general, will have a significant following for many years to come.
Fine arts critic Kyle MacMillan can be reached at 303-820-1675 or kmacmillan@denverpost.com.
