T. C. Cannon

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Thomas Wayne Cannon (Born September 27, 1946 in Lawton, Oklahoma - 1978) was an important Native American artist of the 20th century. A member of the Kiowa and Caddo nations, he was popularly known as T.C. Cannon.

Cannon joined the Institute of American Indian Arts of Santa Fe in 1964, where he studied under Fritz Scholder. In 1972, Cannon and Scholder staged a joint exhibition at the Smithsonian Institution's National Collection of Fine Arts, titled "Two American Painters". Cannon produced a large body of work over the next six years, in preparation for his first one-man show, scheduled to open at the Aberbach Gallery in New York in October of 1978. On May 8 of that year, however, he was killed in an automobile accident, and after a delay, the show opened on December 10, 1979 as "T.C. Cannon: A Memorial Exhibition". Featuring 50 works by Cannon, it subsequently became a travelling exhibition, and went on display at locations such as the Heard Museum, the Museum of New Mexico, and the Buffalo Bill Historical Center.