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Monroe Tsatoke, Medicine Dance

Monroe Tsatoke
1904-1937
Kiowa
Date
1979
Medium Specific
Six-color Lithograph
Edition / State
Plate 27, 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
2021.10.20.32
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 Kiowa painter from Oklahoma, Monroe Tsatoke (Tsa To Kee, or Hunting Horse) brought acclaim and recognition to other Indian artists and to his home state. He was born near Saddle Mountain, Oklahoma Territory, on September 29, 1904, the son of Tsa To Kee (Hunting Horse), a Kiowa scout for Gen. George Armstrong Custer. Tsatoke's grandmother was a white captive. Tsatoke married Martha Koomsa in 1924, and they had four children; Jewel, Lee Monette (also an artist), Ross Maker, and John Thomas.

Tsatoke's father nourished him on Kiowa culture. He passed along to his son knowledge that resulted in culturally specific paintings such as Dog Soldiers. He was instructed in painting in the classes offered by Kiowa Field Matron Susie Peters and, later, by art teacher Willie Baze Lane. He also attended classes at Bacone College in Muskogee, Oklahoma, and at the University of Oklahoma, studying under professors Edith Mahier and Oscar B. Jacobson.

The Kiowa Five included six artists: Spencer Asah, James Auchiah, Jack Hokeah, Stephen Mopope, Lois Smoky, and Monroe Tsatoke. In 1926 Asah, Hokeah, Tsatoke, Mopope, and Smoky moved to Norman, Oklahoma and began their art studies at OU. Smoky returned home late in 1927, but Auchiah joined the group that year.

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.

In addition to his painting Tsatoke was passionate about music and was chief singer for Kiowa ceremonials for a number of years. He memorized songs from many different tribes. He was also fascinated by symbols. After he became a member of the Native American Church, his paintings recorded many of the ceremonies' symbols.

Recognized as part of that of the early Oklahoma Indian masters, his works are held in the collections of the Gilcrease Museum, the Philbrook Museum of Art, the Heard Museum in Phoenix, the Cleveland Museum of Art, and the Museum of the American Indian in New York. A victim of tuberculosis, he died on February 3, 1937.

https://www.okhistory.org/publications/enc/entry.php?entry=TS001
Also see: 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.
Date of Bio