Kay WalkingStickPeonies
Art Bridges Collection
T.C. CannonGrandmother Gestating Father and the Washita River Runs Ribbon-Like
About
“A woman of sun and blood ... A woman of the eternal breath of life ... A maiden of the eternal circle ...” These words, written by Kiowa and Caddo artist T.C. Cannon, are taken from the poem that his painting illustrates.
Cannon’s works use striking color relationships and emphasize the juxtaposition of Native culture and Anglo-American society. This image depicts the artist’s grandmother, pregnant with his father, and the Washita River in Oklahoma, near where the artist grew up. It is important to note that the Washita River was also the site of a massacre in 1868, when General Custer’s soldiers invaded a peaceful Cheyenne camp, killing women and children, yet Cannon’s painting remains a celebratory work.
A powerful depiction of multi-generational connection, Grandmother, Gestating Father and the Washita River Runs Ribbon-Like exhibits a joyous regard for the people and places that define the artist’s family heritage.
Artist
T.C. Cannon
Dimensions
50 × 40 in. (127 × 101.6 cm)
Credit Line
Art Bridges
Date
1975
Medium
Oil and acrylic on canvas
Object Number
AB.2019.1
Provenance
Artist; (Aberbach Fine Art, New York, NY); (Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian, formerly Museum of Navajo Ceremonial Art, Santa Fe, NM); to S. Rudy Collection, Santa Fe, NM; (Dewey-Kofron Gallery, Santa Fe, NM); to Nancy and Richard Bloch Collection, Santa Fe, NM, 1983, then to Survivor’s Trust under the Richard and Nancy Bloch Family Trust dated December 17, 1986, as amended, Santa Fe, NM; (Zaplin Lampert Gallery, Inc., Santa Fe, NM); purchased by Art Bridges, TX, 2019
