Acee Blue Eagle
| Acee Blue Eagle | |
|---|---|
| Native name | Chebon Ahbulah (Laughing Boy), Lumhee Holot-Tee (Blue Eagle) |
| Born |
August 16, 1907 Near Anadarko, Oklahoma |
| Died | June 18, 1959 (aged 51) |
Resting place | National Cemetery, Fort Gibson, Oklahoma |
| Ethnicity | Muscogee Creek-Pawnee-Wichita |
| Education | Chilocco Indian Agricultural School; Bacone College; Oklahoma State Technical School, Okmulgee, and Haskell Institute |
| Alma mater | University of Oklahoma, Norman |
| Occupation | Artist, educator, dancer, and flute player. |
| Organization | United States Army Air Corps, Bacone College |
| Notable work | Murals in the dining hall of the USS Oklahoma (BB-37) and U.S. Post Office at Seminole, Oklahoma |
| Style | Bacone style |
| Spouse(s) | Second wife, Balinese dancer, Devi Dja |
| Partner(s) | Mae Wadley Abbott |
| Parent(s) | Solomon McIntosh, mother was either Mattie Odom or Ella Starr |
| Relatives | Second cousin, Muscogee-Seminole artist Fred Beaver; cousin, Howard Rufus Collins, who painted under the name Ducee Blue Buzzard |
| Awards | Indian Hall of Fame, Who's Who of Oklahoma, International Who's Who, "Outstanding Indian in the United States", 1958; received a medal for eight paintings at the National Museum of Ethiopia |
Acee Blue Eagle (17 August 1907 – 18 June 1959), also named Alex C. McIntosh, Chebon Ahbulah (Laughing Boy), and Lumhee Holot-Tee (Blue Eagle), was a Muscogee Creek-Pawnee-Wichita artist, educator, dancer, and flute player.[1]
Background
He was born near Anadarko, Oklahoma, into the Mcintosh family, a family which has given the Creek tribe of Oklahoma many of its chiefs.[2] His great-grandfather was chief of the creeks for 31 years.[3] He studied at Chilocco Indian Agricultural School; Bacone College; University of Oklahoma, Norman; Oklahoma State Technical School, Okmulgee,[1] and Haskell Institute, Lawrence, Kansas, where a business administration building is named Blue Eagle Hall in his honor.
Blue Eagle served in the United States Army Air Corps during World War II. He died on 18 June 1959,[4] and is buried in the National Cemetery at Fort Gibson, Oklahoma.
Art career
Blue Eagle became a painter of murals for the Federal Art Project in 1934.[5] In 1935, Blue Eagle was invited to give a series of lectures on American Indian art at Oxford University in England, and he took Europe by storm. Returning to the United States, he established the Art Department at Bacone College in 1935, and directed the program until 1938. There he helped shaped development of the Bacone style of painting. In the 1940s he created a number of works for his friend, the collector Thomas Gilcrease.[6] Blue Eagle gained worldwide fame during his lifetime, and his two-dimensional paintings hang in private and public galleries all over the world. Acee was well known for painting large interior murals, some of which are still preserved in Oklahoma. One of Acee's murals was in the dining hall of the USS Oklahoma (BB-37). Blue Eagle's large interior oil on canvas murals titled Seminole Indian Scene commissioned by the WPA in 1939 for the U.S. post office at Seminole, Oklahoma are still on display. For the post office in Coalgate, Oklahoma Blue Eagle painted the acrylic Indian Family at Routine Tasks in 1942 also commissioned by the WPA. The Coalgate mural was restored in 1965 by prominent Muscogee Creek-Seminole painter and muralist Fred Beaver.[7]
Honors
He was elected into the Indian Hall of Fame, Who's Who of Oklahoma, and the International Who's Who. He was chosen "Outstanding Indian in the United States" in 1958. Among his many honors, Blue Eagle received a medal for eight paintings at the National Museum of Ethiopia, presented by the Emperor Haile Selassie I.[4] Fellow Oklahoma artist and muralist Charles Banks Wilson said of Blue Eagle; "Acee was the Dale Carnegie of Indian Art. If Oklahoma has a foundation in Indian Art, it is with Acee Blue Eagle."[3]
Tamara Liegerot Elder published a biography of the artist: Lumhee Holot-tee: The Art and Life of Acee Blue Eagle, in 2006 through Medicine Wheel Press.
Relatives
The Muscogee-Seminole artist Fred Beaver was Acee's second cousin and friend. in 1965, Beaver was hired by the Coalgate Post Office to restore Acee Blue Eagle's mural, Women Making Pashofa.[8] Acee's cousin, Howard Rufus Collins, painted under the name Ducee Blue Buzzard, as a parody of Acee's name. Besides being an artist and illustrator, Blue Buzzard was a Freemason known for his charity work with children.[9]
Notes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Wyckoff, 92
- ↑ Elder, 3
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Lester,73
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Lester, 73
- ↑ Register to the Papers of Acee Blue Eagle, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution
- ↑ Moran, 113
- ↑ Lester, Patrick D., The Biographical Directory of Native American Painters, SIR Publications, Tulsa, Oklahoma, 9780806199369, page 48, First edition, 1995
- ↑ Elder, 50–52
- ↑ Gregory, Strickland, and Blue Buzzard, 49
References
- Elder, Tamara Liegerot. Lumhee Holot-tee: The Art and Life of Acee Blue Eagle. Edmond, OK: Medicine Wheel Press, 2006. ISBN 978-0-9754072-1-9.
- Gregory, Jack and Rennard Strickland, editors. Ducee Blue Buzzard, illustrator. American Indian Spirit Tales: Redbirds, Ravens, and Coyotes. Muscogee, Oklahoma: Indian Heritage Association, 1974. ASIN B0006W9L16.
- Lester, Patrick D. The Biographical Directory of Native American Painters. Norman and London: The Oklahoma University Press, 1995. ISBN 0-8061-9936-9.
- Morand, Anne, Kevin Smith, Daniel C. Swan, Sarah Erwin, Treasures of Gilcrease: Selections from the Permanent Collection (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2005), ISBN 978-0-8061-9956-6 (excerpt available at Google Books).
- Wyckoff, Lydia L. Visions and Voices: Native American Painting from the Philbrook Museum of Art. Tulsa, OK: Philbrook Museum of Art, 1996. ISBN 0-86659-013-7.
External links
- Register to the Papers of Acee Blue Eagle, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution
- Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture - Blue Eagle, Acee
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