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Sign
of Spring is a silkscreen print by Woody Crumbo. (Courtesy
of the Harwood Museum of Art)
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Amidst the economic and agricultural slump that hit the Great
Plains in the 1920s - long preceding the Great Depression to follow
the 1929 stock market crash - a new school of art was forming at
the Bacone College in Muskogee, Oklahoma. The institution, formed
to educate Native Americans from across the country in the place
once known as Indian Territory, became world famous for its Bacone
School of Art.
In what was then-called the Indian College, classes began in
February 1880 in Tahlequah, Oklahoma. In 1910, the college received
its contemporary name in honor of Almon C. Bacone, its first president
and a longtime, vocal opponent of the U.S. governments Indian
Removal policies. Its current location in Muskogee, Oklahoma sits
on land donated by the Muscogee-Creek Nation. In the interest of
increasing enrollment in the years after WWI, university President
B.D. Weeks promoted Bacone as a learning institution exclusively
aimed at Native American students. Weeks recruited Native American
faculty, one of which was world-renowned Potawatomi artist Woody
Crumbo, who led the Bacone School of Art from 1938-1941.
Upon his return to Norman, Oklahoma for his senior year at the
University of Oklahoma in 1938, Crumbo received an invitation to
interview for a teaching position at Bacone. Crumbo was recommended
for the position by the equally famous Acee Blue Eagle, the departments
first director and the man who is widely credited with helping shape
what became known as the Bacone Style.
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WOODY
CRUMBO Night Hawk Rider
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In Robert Perrys biography of Crumbo, Uprising!:
Woody Crumbos Indian Art, the Potawatomi artist described
how he instilled a disciplined approach to the school of arts
training by demanding that attendees be full time students. He also
broke a previous precedent of retaining the right to purchase his
best students paintings, instead choosing to instruct them
on how to market their art to potential customers. In addition to
the schools focus on painting, Crumbo also formatted a curriculum
that expanded artistic endeavors to sectors that would produce an
income, like silver work, jewelry making and weaving.
As noted in Lisa K. Neumans Indian Play: Indigenous
Identities at Bacone College, Crumbo explained that what
we want to do at Bacone eventually is to establish an art department
that will be a cultural center for Indian arts and crafts.
Though tied to the University of Oklahoma through Crumbos
relationship with its prestigious art department which produced
the wellknown Kiowa Five artists, the Bacone Style became known
for bold colors and figures in motion. According to a 2014 James
McGirk article on the schools influence in This Land Press,
the early products, especially pieces produced by those taught under
Crumbo and Blue Eagle, had Art Deco influences. Also known as the
traditional Oklahoma style, the artistry portrays an
idealized version of Indian life with stylized use of form, color
and outline. Though the style is now known as traditional Native
American art, and went out of style for a time, its influence is
prominent.
Crumbo left Bacone as the American entrance into WWII approached,
but not because of the war. His longtime supporter and friend, President
B.D. Weeks, had been accused of slander and resigned from the college
he had helped grow. Crumbo and several staff members who had come
into the college under his tenure resigned as well. Though the Bacone
School continued to produce artists in the years following the war,
the impact of the first two department heads in Blue Eagle and Crumbo
was a defining point in its development.
In addition to his own legacy, Crumbos impact on the art
scene continued on through his daughter, Minisa Crumbo Halsey, and
son, Woody Max Crumbo. Halsey is a talented artist whose work has
been shown throughout Europe and the Russian Federation while Woody
Max Crumbo is a gifted silversmith. The elder Crumbos career
spanned nearly 60 years and included major advancements in oil,
silkscreen, tempera, pencil and watercolor. His work is in numerous
museums and private collections around the world, including that
of the Queen of England.
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