Description:
Watercolor on paper. Signed l.r.: Wahpah-nahyah (Dick West), Stamped u.r.: PLANCHE 36.
From: American Indian Painters, Vol. 1, p. 19: We can easily imagine Dick in his naval officer's uniform as a chief of the shore patrol in San Francisco, or on duty on a battleship in the Pacific. Dick, born in 1912, is a member of the fighting Cheyennes. He stands six feet four inches in his stocking feet. He was captain of the football team at Haskell and Bacone, and he was for two or three summers a scout master in a boys' camp in the East. He was also president of the Student Council at Haskell as well as the president of the Leather Necks and a member of the Sequoyah Club. Naturally he is an expert horseman and enjoys hunting. And he paints picture, both in oil and watercolor. He does lithographs, woodblock printing, models in clay and sculpts in stone. He can play the drum and give a war dance with the best of the old warriors of the Plains. He attended the Art School of the University of Oklahoma and graduated in 1941 as Bachelor of Fine Arts, the first full blood Indian to receive this degree. He is well versed in general history of art. He is now studying for his Master's degree. His pictures of Indian subjects have been exhibited in many of the large cities of our country and he has done at least two murals in Oklahoma -- one at Bacone and the other in the Post Office at Okemah. The design for this project by an eastern artist had been rejected by the citizens of Okemah as unsuitable, if not absurd. In their dilemma the officials of Washington asked advice. Since Okemah is the site of an old Indian capitol, I suggested that a competition be staged among Oklahoma Indians for this mural. Dick won first place and received the commission. He chose as his subject "A Grand Conference of the Creeks, 1924". He did considerable research to secure historical accuracy. In 1949 he won the Grand Prize at the Indian art exhibition at Philbrook. He is Art teacher at Bacone College. Already a leader in the American art world, he is undoubtedly destined to play an even greater role in the education for Indian youth. Looking and walking like a huge panther, Dick is the kindest and most considerate young man I have ever known. At school he was the favorite of everybody, including the ladies. "Dick Dancing" was painted recently. It is a boldly rendered figure of a Northern Cheyenne Indian doing dance steps, while blowing a shrill whistle. It is thoroughly Indian in technique and execution, but his mastery of anatomy and movement reveals years of artistic training. In color it is daring but harmonious. The warrior's face looks like a self-portrait. (Courtesy of the Artist)