Jack Hokeah, Greeting of thee Moon God
Jack Hokeah
1900-1969
Kiowa
Date
1979
Medium Specific
Six-color Lithograph
Edition / State
Plate 6, Portfolio 128/750
Publisher
Bell Editions, Inc., Santa Fe, NM
Classification
Print
Dimensions
15 x 11 in. (38.1 x 27.9 cm)
Accession Number
2021.10.20.11
Memo / Artist Statement
From the portfolio "Kiowa Indian Art: Watercolor Paintings in Color by the Indians of Oklahoma", featuring 30 prints by a group of artists known as the Kiowa Five.The original portfolio was published by l'Edition d'Art, C. Szwedzicki in 1929 with Pochoir prints. The 1979 edition was published by Bell Editions, Inc. as lithograph reproductions that were created from #89/750 of the original 1929 edition. It also includes an introduction by Jamake Highwater, who also signed and numbered the booklet..
Biography
A member of the illustrious group of Kiowa artists who became nationally and internationally famous while studying painting at the University of Oklahoma in the late 1920s, Jack Hokeah was born in western Oklahoma on December 8, 1990. Orphaned as a young boy and raised by his grandmother, Hokeah was the grandson of the Kiowa warrior Tsen-t'ainte and, along with Spencer Asah and Stephen Mopope, he came from a distinguished line of artists.
Hokeah attended St. Patrick's Indian Mission School in Anadarko, Oklahoma, and there he received his first art instruction from Sister Olivia Taylor, a Choctaw nun. The field matron for the Kiowa agency, Susan Peters arranged for Mrs. Willie Baze Lane, an artist from Chickasha, Oklahoma to provide further art instruction for the young Indians. Recognizing the talent of some of the young artists, Peters convinced Swedish-American artist, Oscar Jacobson, director of the University of Oklahoma's School of Art to accept the Kiowa students into a special program at the school in 1927.
The Kiowa Five included six artists: Spencer Asah, James Auchiah, Jack Hokeah, Stephen Mopope, Lois Smoky, and Monroe Tsatoke. In 1927 Asah, Hokeah, Tsatoke, Mopope, and Smoky moved to Norman, Oklahoma and began their art studies at OU. Smoky returned home later in the year, and Auchiah joined the group.
In his art, Hokeah chose to focus on subjects informed by his southern Great Plains heritage and included Kiowa dances, which he was known to be an excellent dancer and singer.
In the 1928, the Kiowa Five debuted in the international fine arts world by participating in the First International Art Exposition in Prague, Czechoslovakia. Dr. Jacobson arranged for their work to be shown in several other countries and for Kiowa Art, a portfolio of pochoir prints artists' paintings to be published in France.
Hokeah later studied at the Studio in Santa Fe Indian School and in 1930 with Spencer Asah and Stephen Mopope, they participated in the Gallup Inter-Tribal Indian Ceremonial Dances. There he befriended celebrated San Ildefonso Pueblo potter Maria Martinez, who ultimately adopted him as son. He stayed with her family many times in the ensuing decade. After extensive travel, Hokeah chose to return to his home state where he spent the rest of his life.
https://www.okhistory.org/publications/
Janet Berlo, "The Szwedzicki Portfolios of American Indian Art, 1929-1952: Kiowa Indian Art, Pueblo Indian Painting & Pueblo Indian Pottery", American Indian Art Magazine, Spring, 2009: 36-45.
Olivia Von Gries, "Jack Hokeah", in Kiowa Agency: Stories of the Six, Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art, Oklahoma University, 2020: 14-19.
Hokeah attended St. Patrick's Indian Mission School in Anadarko, Oklahoma, and there he received his first art instruction from Sister Olivia Taylor, a Choctaw nun. The field matron for the Kiowa agency, Susan Peters arranged for Mrs. Willie Baze Lane, an artist from Chickasha, Oklahoma to provide further art instruction for the young Indians. Recognizing the talent of some of the young artists, Peters convinced Swedish-American artist, Oscar Jacobson, director of the University of Oklahoma's School of Art to accept the Kiowa students into a special program at the school in 1927.
The Kiowa Five included six artists: Spencer Asah, James Auchiah, Jack Hokeah, Stephen Mopope, Lois Smoky, and Monroe Tsatoke. In 1927 Asah, Hokeah, Tsatoke, Mopope, and Smoky moved to Norman, Oklahoma and began their art studies at OU. Smoky returned home later in the year, and Auchiah joined the group.
In his art, Hokeah chose to focus on subjects informed by his southern Great Plains heritage and included Kiowa dances, which he was known to be an excellent dancer and singer.
In the 1928, the Kiowa Five debuted in the international fine arts world by participating in the First International Art Exposition in Prague, Czechoslovakia. Dr. Jacobson arranged for their work to be shown in several other countries and for Kiowa Art, a portfolio of pochoir prints artists' paintings to be published in France.
Hokeah later studied at the Studio in Santa Fe Indian School and in 1930 with Spencer Asah and Stephen Mopope, they participated in the Gallup Inter-Tribal Indian Ceremonial Dances. There he befriended celebrated San Ildefonso Pueblo potter Maria Martinez, who ultimately adopted him as son. He stayed with her family many times in the ensuing decade. After extensive travel, Hokeah chose to return to his home state where he spent the rest of his life.
https://www.okhistory.org/publications/
Janet Berlo, "The Szwedzicki Portfolios of American Indian Art, 1929-1952: Kiowa Indian Art, Pueblo Indian Painting & Pueblo Indian Pottery", American Indian Art Magazine, Spring, 2009: 36-45.
Olivia Von Gries, "Jack Hokeah", in Kiowa Agency: Stories of the Six, Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art, Oklahoma University, 2020: 14-19.
Date of Bio