Native American artist uses bright colors to paint portraits with self determination

T.C. Cannon was one of the most influential modern Native American artists in the 1960s and 70s.

Assistant Curator of the Whitney Western Art Museum, Dr. Ashlea Espinal, said the portraits he painted presented people as they are—often with self determination and assertiveness. She described Cannon’s piece, “Buffalo Medicine Keeper.”

“The figure references the Sundance ceremony, which is one of the most sacred ceremonies amongst the Plains nations,” she said.

Espinal added, “through his use of brightly colored circles in the background of the painting, Cannon references the sun spots that the Sundance participants see. And the very bright colors and the bold composition combine modernist aesthetics and Cannon’s Native culture to create a very compelling portrait of an individual.”

Cannon was one of the first students to study at the Institute of American Indian Arts in Sante Fe, New Mexico. Espinal said he played a critical role in pushing the boundaries beyond the styles and subjects that had been expected of Native American artists in the past.