R c gorman artist biography

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C. Gorman Navajo Gallery in Taos in 1968. After he left high school, he served in the Navy before entering college, where he majored in Literature and minored in Art at Northern Arizona University. Descended from generations of Navajo craftsmen, holy men, and tribal leaders, he was encouraged by a teacher at a mission school to develop his talent for art.

From the 1970s, as his reputation spread throughout the USA and abroad, he moved on from working with oil, acrylic, and pastel to lithographs, ceramics, and occasional sculptures. His mother was Adele Katherine Brown, and his father Carl Gorman was a noted Navajo painter and teacher, who later became a code talker during WWII.

Gorman grew up in a traditional Navajo hogan and began drawing at age three.

In 1973, he was the only living artist whose work was shown in the “Masterworks of the American Indian" show held at the Metropolitan Museum in New York, NY. One of his pieces was selected for the cover of the exhibit's catalog.

Gorman's work was explored in a series on American Indian artists for the Public Broadcasting System (PBS).

There he learned of and was influenced by the work Diego Rivera. After several years in the US Navy, he attended Arizona State College (now Northern Arizona University), but it was a visit to Mexico (1958) and then a year at the Mexico City College (now University of the Americas) that fixed his desire to be an artist.

After spending several years in San Francisco developing as a painter, he moved to Taos, NM.

In 1965 he received a one-man exhibition in the Manchester Gallery there, and by 1968 his work was enjoying enough success that he bought the gallery, changed its name to Navajo Gallery, and began to exhibit and sell his own and other artists’ work. While tending sheep in Canyon de Chelly with his aunts, he used to draw on rocks and in the sand and mud.

It was the first Native American-owned art gallery in Taos. Gorman grew up in a traditional Navajo hogan and began drawing at the age of 3. The gallery was the first in the United States to be owned by a Native American. It remained for many years as his residence, studio, and gallery, where he was often present to deal personally with the growing numbers of other artists and the public who came by.

His father, Carl Nelson Gorman was one of the original 29 Navajo Code Talkers during World War II. He was also a technical illustrator and taught art at the Otis Art Institute in Los Angeles. Referred to as “the Picasso of American Indian artists” by the New York Times, his paintings are primarily Native American women, characterized by fluid forms and simple lines, with touches of brilliant color.

R.C.

His grandmother helped raise him, recounting Navajo legends and enumerating his genealogy of artist ancestors. He is arguably the first Native American artist to be internationally recognized as a major American artist.

Profile

Artist R.C. Gorman was born in Chinle, Arizona, on July 26, 1931. Other artists in the series included Helen Hardin, Charles Loloma, Allan Houser, Joseph Lonewolf, and Fritz Scholder.

R.C.

In 1958, he received the first scholarship from the Navajo Tribal Council to study outside of the United States, and enrolled in the art program at Mexico City College.

Reputed to be a genial, accessible man, known to be interested in food and cooking, and someone at home in the worlds of both his ancestors and international museums and academies, he is arguably the first Native American to be internationally recognized as a major American artist.

Gorman died at University Hospital in Albuquerque, New Mexico on November 3, 2005 after a fall in his home.  (Exerpted from Wikipedia and other sources)