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Indian Patriots: A Study Through Portraiture (open access)

Indian Patriots: A Study Through Portraiture

In the fall of 1972 I was required to read Dee Brown's "Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee" as an "atmosphere setter" for a seminar on artists of the westward expansion in the United States. When I first started making drawings of some of the Indian leaders, I had no idea of doing a series. I also had no idea that Indians and more especially those of the West, would be consuming so much of my time and thoughts for such a long period. In the beginning the drawings were prompted by a fascination with the bone structure of the Indian faces. The high cheekbones, the prominent noses and unusual eyes caused marvelous patterns of light and dark, making the faces very conducive to caricature. As I began to know these faces as individuals and personalities, however, I knew that caricature was not the direction which i wanted to pursue.
Date: May 1976
Creator: Cundall, Edwinia Tillinghast
System: The UNT Digital Library