Johnny Tiger, Jr.
Johnny Tiger, Jr. (born 1940) is a Muscogee Creek-Seminole artist from Oklahoma.[1]
Background
Johnny Tiger Jr. was born in 1940 in Tahlequah, Oklahoma, the capital of the Cherokee Nation. His parents were Loucine Lewis and the Reverend John M. Tiger.[1] His younger brother, the late Jerome Tiger, became a celebrated artist.[2] As a child Johnny traveled with his grandfather Coleman Lewis, a well known Baptist Missionary within the Muscogee Creek Nation. While traveling, Coleman would teach his grandson the history and legends of his people in the Muscogee language, their native tongue.
Art career
As a young man Johnny loved pin striping hot rods but moved towards fine arts. In his paintings, he preserved the oral history of his tribes, painting scenes such as a tribal gathering, stomp dances, or medicine men healing the sick, based on his own experiences.
In 1959, Johnny enrolled at Bacone College to study art under the legendary Cheyenne master Walter Richard "Dick" West Sr..[1] Johnny's classmates included David Williams and Joan Hill.[3] Winning numerous major art awards by the late 1970s, he became a full-time artist. In 1982 Tiger was declared a master artist by the Five Civilized Tribes Museum of Muskogee, Oklahoma.[1]
Besides his prominence as a painter, Johnny is also a well-known sculptor. He has received many major awards, and has produced several bronze pieces.
Notes
References
- Lester, Patrick D. The Biographical Directory of Native American Painters. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1995. ISBN 0-8061-9936-9.
- Wyckoff, Lydia L., ed. Visions and Voices: Native American Painting from the Philbrook Museum of Art. Tulsa, OK: Philbrook Museum of Art, 1996. ISBN 0-86659-013-7.