David Emmett Williams (
Tonkawa
The Tonkawa are a Native American tribe indigenous to present-day Oklahoma. Their Tonkawa language, now extinct, is a linguistic isolate.
Today, Tonkawa people are enrolled in the federally recognized Tonkawa Tribe of Indians of Oklahoma. ...
name: Tosque; August 20, 1933 – November 8, 1985)
was a
Native American painter, who was
Kiowa
Kiowa () people are a Native American tribe and an indigenous people of the Great Plains of the United States. They migrated southward from western Montana into the Rocky Mountains in Colorado in the 17th and 18th centuries,Pritzker 326 and e ...
/
Tonkawa
The Tonkawa are a Native American tribe indigenous to present-day Oklahoma. Their Tonkawa language, now extinct, is a linguistic isolate.
Today, Tonkawa people are enrolled in the federally recognized Tonkawa Tribe of Indians of Oklahoma. ...
/
Kiowa-Apache from
Oklahoma.
He studied with
Dick West
Walter Richard West Sr. (1912–1996, Southern Cheyenne), was a painter, sculptor, and educator. He led the Art Department at Bacone College from 1947 to 1970. He later taught at Haskell Institute for several years. Jones, Ruthe BlalockWest, Walte ...
(
Southern Cheyenne
The Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes are a united, federally recognized tribe of Southern Arapaho and Southern Cheyenne people in western Oklahoma.
History
The Cheyennes and Arapahos are two distinct tribes with distinct histories. The Cheyenne (Ts ...
) at
Bacone College
Bacone College, formerly Bacone Indian University, is a private tribal college in Muskogee, Oklahoma. Founded in 1880 as the Indian University by missionary Almon C. Bacone, it was originally affiliated with the mission arm of what is now Ameri ...
and won numerous national awards for his paintings. He painted in the Flatstyle technique that was taught at Bacone from the 1940s to the 1970s.
Background
David Emmett Williams (Tonkawa name: Tosque) was born on August 20, 1933, in
Lawton, Oklahoma, to singer and leather-worker Emmett Williams (
Tonkawa
The Tonkawa are a Native American tribe indigenous to present-day Oklahoma. Their Tonkawa language, now extinct, is a linguistic isolate.
Today, Tonkawa people are enrolled in the federally recognized Tonkawa Tribe of Indians of Oklahoma. ...
/
Kiowa Apache
The Plains Apache are a small Southern Athabaskan group who live on the Southern Plains of North America, in close association with the linguistically unrelated Kiowa Tribe. Today, they are centered in Southwestern Oklahoma and Northern Texas a ...
) and his
Kiowa
Kiowa () people are a Native American tribe and an indigenous people of the Great Plains of the United States. They migrated southward from western Montana into the Rocky Mountains in Colorado in the 17th and 18th centuries,Pritzker 326 and e ...
wife,
Jennie Sahkoodlequoie,
who was descended of
Satanka (
Sitting Bear
Satank (Set-angya or Set-ankeah, translated as chief Topinabee A quiet Sitting Bear) was a prestigious Kiowa warrior and medicine man. He was born about 1800, probably in Kansas, and killed June 8, 1871. An able warrior, he became part of the Koi ...
,
ca. 1800–1871). Census records confirm Williams was a full-blood but show his father's heritage was
Comanche.
Education
Williams studied at the Indian Art Center in
Fort Sill, Oklahoma
Fort Sill is a United States Army post north of Lawton, Oklahoma, about 85 miles (136.8 km) southwest of Oklahoma City. It covers almost .
The fort was first built during the Indian Wars. It is designated as a National Historic Landmark ...
, under
Olle Nordmark
Olle Emanuel Nordmark (May 25, 1890 – December 18, 1973) was a Swedish painter and muralist born in Nordanholen at Mockfjärd parish. He was focused on an art career from an early age. After emigrating in 1924 to the United States to gain ...
and later at Bacone College with fellow Native American painters,
Joan Hill
Joan Hill (December 19, 1930 – June 16, 2020), also known as Che-se-quah, was a Muscogee Creek artist of Cherokee ancestry. She was one of the most awarded Native American women artists in the 20th century.
Personal
Joan Hill was born in Musk ...
(Muscogee/Cherokee) and
Doc Tate Nevaquaya
Joyce Lee "Doc" Tate Nevaquaya (July 3, 1932 – March 5, 1996) was a Comanche flute player and painter from Apache, Oklahoma.
He is known for his contribution to the Native American flute music. His efforts in learning how to make Comanche flu ...
(Comanche) under Dick West.
Williams did not pursue painting seriously until 1959. Prior to that, he performed as a
powwow dancer and singer and worked in a shoe factory. He became serious and passionate about art in the early 1960s and worked in acrylic, gouache, pencil,
distemper, and printmaking.
All of the artists of this period at Bacone were taught the
Bacone style, a Flatstyle painting style, which was often showcased at the
Philbrook Museum of Art
Philbrook Museum of Art is an art museum with expansive formal gardens located in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The museum, which opened in 1939, is located in a former 1920s villa, "Villa Philbrook", the home of Oklahoma oil pioneer Waite Phillips and his ...
's ''Indian Annual'', a competitive juried art show. Philbrook and Bacone had an agreement in the 1940s through the 1960s period whereby student's work would be hung and offered for sale, with the school garnering one third of the profits of any sale.
Art career
Williams participated in the annual competitions
and was one of the Grand Award winners
in the early 1960s. He also won, during the same time frame, the national competition held at the Bismarck National Indian Art Show in
Bismarck, North Dakota.
[ ]
In 1961, Williams married Norma Jean Eubanks
and the couple moved to Los Angeles. Actor
Vincent Price
Vincent Leonard Price Jr. (May 27, 1911 – October 25, 1993) was an American actor, art historian, art collector and gourmet cook. He appeared on stage, television, and radio, and in more than 100 films. Price has two stars on the Hollywood Wal ...
, who was a major collector and advocate of
Native American art
Visual arts by indigenous peoples of the Americas encompasses the visual artistic practices of the indigenous peoples of the Americas from ancient times to the present. These include works from South America and North America, which includes ...
, purchased 50 of William's paintings to sell through
Sears Roebuck
Sears, Roebuck and Co. ( ), commonly known as Sears, is an American chain of department stores founded in 1892 by Richard Warren Sears and Alvah Curtis Roebuck and reincorporated in 1906 by Richard Sears and Julius Rosenwald, with what began a ...
's Fine Arts Collection nationwide.
William's first solo exhibition was at the
Heard Museum
The Heard Museum is a private, not-for-profit museum in Phoenix, Arizona, United States, dedicated to the advancement of American Indian art. It presents the stories of American Indian people from a first-person perspective, as well as exhibitio ...
in Phoenix,
in 1964.
That same year, he also did a two-man show with
sand painter, David Villasenor, at the
Pasadena Public Library.
[ ] He had other solo shows at the
Southern Plains Indian Museum
Southern Plains Indian Museum is a Native American museum located in Anadarko, Oklahoma. It was opened in 1948 under a cooperative governing effort by the United States Department of the Interior and the Oklahoma state government. The museum feat ...
and Craft Center in
Anadarko, Oklahoma
Anadarko is a city in Caddo County, Oklahoma, United States. The city is fifty miles southwest of Oklahoma City. The population was 5,745 at the 2020 census. It is the county seat of Caddo County.
History
Anadarko got its name when its post of ...
, the
Southwest Museum of the American Indian
The Southwest Museum of the American Indian is a museum, library, and archive located in the Mt. Washington neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, above the north-western bank of the Arroyo Seco (Los Angeles County) canyon and stream. The muse ...
in Los Angeles and the Tryon Gallery in London.
By 1970, the Williams family had decided to move back to Oklahoma and lived in Tahlequah with their two sons.
In 1980, Williams designed the centennial logo for Bacone College. By 1981, he mostly stopped painting after losing his eyesight to diabetes. In 1983, he was inducted into the Bacone College Alumni Hall of Fame.
Exhibitions
In 1972, Williams participated in the traveling exhibition, ''Contemporary Southern Plains Indian Painting'', sponsored by the
Southern Plains Indian Museum
Southern Plains Indian Museum is a Native American museum located in Anadarko, Oklahoma. It was opened in 1948 under a cooperative governing effort by the United States Department of the Interior and the Oklahoma state government. The museum feat ...
and the Oklahoma Indian Arts and Crafts Co-operative of Anadarko. In 1974, he won the Grand Prize at the ''Trail of Tears Art Show'' at the
Cherokee Heritage Center
The Cherokee Heritage Center (Cherokee: Ꮳꮃꭹ Ꮷꮎꮣꮄꮕꮣ Ꭰᏸꮅ) is a non-profit historical society and museum campus that seeks to preserve the historical and cultural artifacts, language, and traditional crafts of the Cherokee. ...
.
During his lifetime, Williams had multiple and profitable exhibitions throughout the United States including at the
Arizona State Museum
The Arizona State Museum (ASM), founded in 1893, was originally a repository for the collection and protection of archaeological resources. Today, however, ASM stores artifacts, exhibits them and provides education and research opportunities. It ...
at the University of Arizona in
Tucson
, "(at the) base of the black ill
, nicknames = "The Old Pueblo", "Optics Valley", "America's biggest small town"
, image_map =
, mapsize = 260px
, map_caption = Interactive map ...
; the First Annual National American Indian Art Exposition in
Charlotte, North Carolina
Charlotte ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of North Carolina. Located in the Piedmont region, it is the county seat of Mecklenburg County. The population was 874,579 at the 2020 census, making Charlotte the 16th-most populo ...
; the
Laguna Gloria Art Museum of
Austin, Texas
Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of Texas, as well as the seat and largest city of Travis County, with portions extending into Hays and Williamson counties. Incorporated on December 27, 1839, it is the 11th-most-populous city ...
; the McCombs Gallery at Bacone College in
Muskogee, Oklahoma; the
Owensboro Museum of Fine Art in Owensboro, Kentucky; among many others. He also won awards at the American Indian Exposition of Anadarko and the Inter-Tribal Indian Ceremonials in
Gallup, New Mexico.
Public collections
Besides in private collections, Williams’ work is part of the permanent collections in museums including the
Cherokee Heritage Center
The Cherokee Heritage Center (Cherokee: Ꮳꮃꭹ Ꮷꮎꮣꮄꮕꮣ Ꭰᏸꮅ) is a non-profit historical society and museum campus that seeks to preserve the historical and cultural artifacts, language, and traditional crafts of the Cherokee. ...
in
Park Hill, Oklahoma
Park Hill is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) in southwestern Cherokee County, Oklahoma, United States. The population was 3,909 at the 2010 census. It lies near Tahlequah, east of the junction of U.S. Route 62 and ...
;
Gilcrease Museum
Gilcrease Museum, also known as the Thomas Gilcrease Institute of American History and Art, is a museum northwest of downtown Tulsa, Oklahoma housing the world's largest, most comprehensive collection of art of the American West, as well as a gro ...
and the Philbrook Art Museum, both in
Tulsa
Tulsa () is the second-largest city in the state of Oklahoma and 47th-most populous city in the United States. The population was 413,066 as of the 2020 census. It is the principal municipality of the Tulsa Metropolitan Area, a region with ...
, Oklahoma; the Heard Museum in Phoenix, Arizona; the Southern Plains Indian Museum in Anadarko; and the Southwest Museum in Los Angeles,
as well as the Smithsonian Institution's
National Museum of the American Indian
The National Museum of the American Indian is a museum in the United States devoted to the culture of the indigenous peoples of the Americas. It is part of the Smithsonian Institution group of museums and research centers.
The museum has three ...
.
Death
Williams died on November 8, 1985
of complications of diabetes.
Selected works
*''Woman Dancer'', 1960
*''Plains Indian War Dance'', 1963
*''Burial at Night'', 1964
*''Kachina Dance'', 1966
*''Comanche Rider'', circa 1970s
*''Empty Saddles: Return of War Party'', circa 1970s
*''Male Dancer'', 1972
*''Kiowa Fancy Dancer'', 1972
*''Kiowa Medicine Man'', 1973
*''The Five Civilized Tribes'', 1974
*''Hunter with Rifle'', 1974
*''Visions to Come'', 1974
*''The Last Remembrance'', 1975
*''Pursued'', 1979
*''Warriors Salute'', 1979
References
External links
David Emmett Williams (Artist File), The Philbrook Museum of Art
{{DEFAULTSORT:Williams, David E.
1933 births
1985 deaths
Apache people
Bacone College alumni
Kiowa people
Native American painters
Painters from Oklahoma
People from Lawton, Oklahoma
Tonkawa people