Copper Plate Etching “Winter on the Reservation” [SOLD]

Woody Crumbo was born in Oklahoma and spent a large part of his life there, but spent his later year in Taos, New Mexico, and was living in Cimarron, New Mexico, when he died on April 4, 1989.  He dedicated his life to portraying the life and culture of Native Americans in the hope of presenting them as they existed at that time because change was inevitable. He was born of the Potawatomi Tribe, was orphaned at age 7, and then lived with a Creek Indian family.  He learned the customs of the Creek, studied those of the Kiowa and then was adopted by a Sioux family. His early schooling, like that of many Native American Indians, was at a U.S. Government Indian School.

Crumbo was contracted to paint six large murals in the new U.S. Department of Interior Building in Washington, D. C.  He was a museum curator, museum director, writer, poet, painter, and sculptor.  He was Director of Art at Bacone Indian College in Oklahoma and was an advisor to Thomas Gilcrease in assembling Indian art for the new Gilcrease Museum in the 1940s and later.

This etching is Crumbo’s effort to illustrate how harsh winters were on Native Americans who lived in such areas.  The sky is dark, the horse is trudging in ankle deep snow and the wind is blowing fiercely judging by the hair on the Indian who is wrapped up to his eyes in a blanket.  Crumbo spent his adult life attempting to explain the ways of his people to outsiders.

Condition: appears to be in original condition

Provenance: from the estate of John and Dixie Yeaple, owners of a gallery in the La Fonda Hotel in Taos from 1945-1949, and then director and curator of The Millicent Rogers Museum from 1950 to 1977.

Recommended Reading: Woody Crumbo by Robert S. Cross