RIP artist RC Gorman
Kris Baker
his Taos NM home.
One of my favorite things is a signed RC Gorman poster, from his first
French (Paris) exhibition, 1979.
From the Santa Fe New Mexican:
http://www.freenewmexican.com/news/34626.html#
July 26, 1931: Born Rudolph Carl Gorman in Chinle, Ariz.
Mid-1950s: Majors in literature and minors in art at Northern Arizona
University.
1958: Receives scholarship from the Navajo Tribal Council to study art at
Mexico City College; later studies art at San Francisco State University.
1968: Opens his Navajo Gallery in Taos.
1973: Gorman is the only living artist in the "Masterworks of the American
Indian" exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum in New York.
1983: Taos gallery owner Stephen Park and photographer Chuck Henningsen
publish R.C. Gorman: A Portrait (Little, Brown, New York)
1986: Harvard University recognizes the artist for his "notable
contributions to American art and Native American culture;" San Francisco
Mayor Dianne Feinstein declares March 19 Gorman Day.
1998: Gorman gives an in-kind donation of art toward Tom Udall's campaign
for election to the U.S. House of Representatives.
2003: Donates his personal library collection to Diné College in Tsaile,
Ariz.
2004: Gorman's works are among 13 lithographs stolen from Rio Grande Gallery
in Santa Fe.
Sept. 18, 2005: Suffers a fall at his home and is taken to Taos' Holy Cross
Hospital.
Sept. 26: Transferred to University Hospital in Albuquerque.
Nov. 3, 2005: Dies at 74
The quotable Gorman
"I've been doing artwork since I was 3. I used to use whatever was at hand.
I drew in sand and mud and on rocks. I used to herd sheep with my aunts, and
they showed me how to work in clay."
"My first art effort in school was a drawing of a naked woman. I got a
whipping from my teacher and from my mother."
"Graphically, I'm inspired by a lot of people and some galleries and
museums. There's a museum in southern France, in Antibes, a Picasso museum.
It's my favorite museum in the world."
"I paint what I see; I don't think. I don't have any message. I think it's
so phony for artists to have this huge meaning. I don't."
"I am not obsessed with large women or even skinny women, but I do prefer to
paint women. I'm attracted to them. And larger women, they fill up the paper
more. There is more space to work with. My own aunts were large women. Maybe
I am reflecting them."
"Success? I don't think about that sort of thing. Actually, I never thought
all this would happen. I started off just doing group shows. Then, at one
show during the Fifties, in Scottsdale, Arizona, two gallery owners really
bought my stuff: Elaine Horwitch and Suzanne Brown. They gave me my biggest
boost."
Quoted by Susan Lawrence Rich in the summer 1990 issue of Radiance magazine
- compiled by Craig Smith
--
Kris
Kris Baker
November 4, 2005
"New Mexico loses a great citizen and the world loses a great artist." --
New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson.
"He was a Renaissance man. He could drift between the politicians and the
celebrities to traditional Navajo medicine people and still talk to students
and be down to earth." -- Ferlin Clark, President of Dine College in Tsaile,
Ariz.
"His color and his whimsy, the way he celebrated Native American women in
particular, and the way he elevated the figures to an art form, really, was
tremendous." -- Stuart Ashman, New Mexico Cultural Affairs Secretary .
"He portrayed them in such a beautiful manner, coming from a culture where
we are often stereotyped in the media ... not very complimentary. His images
not only created the beauty of native women but also a mystique and
character, that they were women of strength. They really represent all
native women in a very, very positive manner." -- Della Warrior, President
of the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, about Gorman's
paintings of Navajo women.
"He helped promote other American Indian artists and gave them an
opportunity to show at his gallery." -- Marita Hinds, Acting Director of
Development at the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe.
"It's a big loss. He's going to be sorely missed. He contributed greatly to
the great name of the Navajo Nation. He afforded us the opportunity to talk
about ourselves to the world. When they took an interest in him, they also
took an interest in our nation." Joe Shirley Jr., Navajo President.
"We have been honored to call Mr. Gorman one of our own, as a Native
American, as a New Mexican and as an artist capable of depicting the essence
of Indian people with grace and elegance. R.C. Gorman represents the finest
of a generation of artists whose lyrical images have permeated the fabric of
New Mexico's unique culture. Through the art and images created by R.C.
Gorman our visual world and collective memory has been enhanced." -- Benny
Shendo Jr., Cabinet Secretary of Indian Affairs.
"R.C. Gorman was a world-renowned artist who called New Mexico his home. He
made a lasting mark on the art world and leaves behind a body of work that
will be enjoyed by many future generations." -- Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M.
proudmari
t-...@webemails.com
God that makes me feel old.
T.
Kris Baker
"proudmari" <mar...@webtv.net> wrote in message
news:18628-436...@storefull-3231.bay.webtv.net...
He never fit the typical artist mold, and if you put him in a line with 1200
other people, most could never pick him out as the artist. Which was total
justice.
Kris
Kris Baker
<t-...@webemails.com> wrote in message
news:1131295287.5...@o13g2000cwo.googlegroups.com...
>
> RC was 74?
> God that makes me feel old.
>
> T.
>
Tell us about him.
I never met him, but every time I've been in Santa Fe (at least for
the past three years) they've played a fifteen-minute tape of him
on their local travel channel. What a character.
Kris
t-...@webemails.com
Durn, Kris, I don't think I can tell the stories I heard.
Let's just say that... I heard that RC was a real party animal. ;)
How about I tell you guys instead about one of my bullshit theories
about Art?
RC understood it.
There is a curve. It's the curve between a woman's
waist and hips. That, I think, is the basis of Art and, hell, human
life itself.
It just turns me on. ;)
T.
Kris Baker
<t-...@webemails.com> wrote in message
news:1131298082.2...@g47g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
> Well, I never met him either but I had friends who were friends of his.
>
> Durn, Kris, I don't think I can tell the stories I heard.
>
> Let's just say that... I heard that RC was a real party animal. ;)
The woman I met, who sold me the Paris exhibition poster, called him "a
drunken Indian". (She was a nasty one all around, though.) RC never
married, did he?
> How about I tell you guys instead about one of my bullshit theories
> about Art?
> RC understood it.
> There is a curve. It's the curve between a woman's
> waist and hips. That, I think, is the basis of Art and, hell, human
> life itself.
> It just turns me on. ;)
> T.
I read an interview years ago (I'm sorry I can't remember the name of the
artist) who said that Cher had the perfect "underarm curve", and that's what
made her body so attractive.
Kris
t-...@webemails.com
grocery store in X-town years ago. She had the biggest ass. It was just
freaking beautiful!
(Oh, God, how many people have I offended THIS time?)
Dunno if RC married or not.
Ummmmm...
I don't think I had better say anything.
T.
Kris Baker
<t-...@webemails.com> wrote in message
news:1131299473.2...@g14g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
You've offended no one. I'll get working on that bigger ass ;)
Kris
My lips are sealed, too
Kris Baker
"I don't know why people complain that beans give
them gas. That's my favorite part."
!
Kris
t-...@webemails.com
stealing an RC Gorman painting. It belonged to a family I knew, they
were friends of mine. They were decendants of one of the Cinco
Pintores. In the end, of course, sanity prevailed. But I really did
think about stealing that damned thing. ;)
T.
Kris Baker
<t-...@webemails.com> wrote in message
news:1131305668.5...@g43g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
I know. Sometimes you admire something so much,
it almost makes it right to steal it.
A few years ago, I picked up a $2.00 painting, and eventually
was able to read the signature: Agapito Labios. I'm still
proudly displaying that one....and Thank You, Kathryn
Hepburn for being a Labios collector.
Kris
t-...@webemails.com
T.
Kris Baker
<t-...@webemails.com> wrote in message
news:1131319920....@o13g2000cwo.googlegroups.com...
>
> $2? Good grief. They might as well have just given it to you. LOL.
>
> T.
That's part of why I love Utah, and "scouting" here. There's just
enough gems amid the junk, to keep it interesting.
Kris