R. C. Gorman

Rudolph Carl Gorman (July 26, 1931 – November 3, 2005) was a Native American artist of the Navajo Nation.

While tending sheep in Canyon de Chelly with his aunts, he used to draw on the rocks, sand, and mud, and made sculptures with the clay, with his earliest subjects including Mickey Mouse and Shirley Temple.

He credited a teacher, Jenny Lind at Ganado Presbyterian Mission School, for his inspiration to become a full-time artist.

[5] After he left high school, he served in the United States Navy before entering college, where he majored in literature and minored in art at Northern Arizona University.

In 1958, he received the first scholarship from the Navajo Tribal Council to study outside of the United States, and enrolled in the art program at Mexico City College.

John Becklaw, writes a review in the Arizona Republic under the headline: "Gormans-Father and Son Rebels in Indian Art"[11] 1965 - R.C.

helps organize American Indian Arts Group in San Francisco and serves as chairman of its painting committee.

[18] Gorman's work was explored in a series on American Indian artists for the Public Broadcasting System (PBS).

Other artists in the series included Helen Hardin, Charles Loloma, Allan Houser, Joseph Lonewolf, and Fritz Scholder.

Gorman learned about the work of the Mexican social realists: Diego Rivera, David Siqueiros, and Rufino Tamayo.

He used abstract forms and shapes to create his own unique, personal realistic style, recognizable to all who are acquainted with his work.

He used lithography throughout his life as a means of making original multiple images of his inspirations, often working by drawing directly on the stones from which the lithographs were printed.