Description:
Watercolor on Paper. Signed l.l.: (Franklin Gritts) OAU Y AGD, Stamped u.r.: PLANCHE 9.
From: American Indian Painters, Vol. 1, p. 13: It was in 1936 that Franklin first appeared in our School of Art as a scholarship student from the U.S. Indian Service. He was a nice-looking youth with a very light complexion for a full blood Indian. His features were delicate and refined and his expression one of contemplative, almost religious, tenderness. He had the deep warm eyes of a St. Francis of Assisi. Franklin, who was born in 1914, is a Cherokee. It was from his father and a cousin that he received his first lessons in art. He attended Bacone College where he received his elementary art instruction from Acee Blue Eagle. Then came three years of regular art work at our University, and he received his B.F.A. Knowing that he spoke, read, and wrote the Cherokee language, we encouraged him to examine his national heritage. He did so. But at that time, to all practical purposes, he belonged to the White man's world. Later he was to become interested in anthropology when he attended a summer session at the University of New Mexico, learning about Indians. In 1940, Franklin went to Haskell Indian Institute to help prepare a large series of exhibits for the Indian Service, that were to be used at the Progressive Educational Convention in Chicago, where he installed them. At the same time, he exhibited a number of his watercolors. Later, he was to accept the position of Art Instructor at Haskell, an ideal choice. There he painted several murals in oil, secco, and gouache. In 1938 he received second prize for his paintings at the Inter-tribal Indian Ceremonial at Gallup, New Mexico. The seeds we had planted were bearing fruit. Franklin was rediscovering his Indian heritage. In 1943 he became a sailor in Uncle Sam's Navy. After intensive training in the 8th Fleet Air Wing, he was assigned to the ill-fated but glorious U.S.S. Franklin. The rest is military history. The Franklin was hit by aerial bombs March 19, 1945, some fifty miles off Japan, and the young artist was seriously wounded. He spent two years in the hospital. "The Stomp Dance" included here represents such a Cherokee social affair. Franklin Usually seems to prefer to picture his people and their neighbours in their present everyday white men's clothing, which he manages to render into a thing of beauty. (Collection University of Oklahoma)