R. C. Gorman

Rudolph Carl Gorman (July 26, 1931 – November 3, 2005) was a Navajo artist known for his depictions of Native American women, rendered with flowing lines and bold colors. The New York Times once called him "the Picasso of American Indian artists." Beyond painting, he created sculptures, ceramics, and stone lithographs. He also loved cooking and wrote four illustrated cookbooks titled *Nudes and Food*.

Gorman was born in Chinle, Arizona, to Adele Katherine Brown and Carl Nelson Gorman. His father was one of the original twenty-nine Navajo Code Talkers, the group that devised the unbreakable code used by U.S. forces in the Pacific during World War II. Raised in a traditional hogan, Gorman started drawing at age three. His grandmother, who helped raise him, told him Navajo legends and traced his lineage of artist ancestors, sparking his ambition to become an artist. While herding sheep in Canyon de Chelly with his aunts, he drew on rocks, sand, and mud, and molded clay into figures—his earliest subjects included Mickey Mouse and Shirley Temple.

He credited a teacher named Jenny Lind at the Ganado Presbyterian Mission School for inspiring him to pursue art full-time. After high school, he served in the U.S. Navy, then attended Northern Arizona University, where he majored in literature and minored in art. In 1958, he received the first scholarship from the Navajo Tribal Council to study abroad, enrolling at Mexico City College. There he encountered the work of Diego Rivera, which influenced him. He later studied at San Francisco State University, where he also worked as a model. Gorman was openly gay.

His professional career spanned from 1963, when he had his first exhibition at a major gallery, until his death in 2005—42 years. Over that time, he produced more than 500 lithographs and serigraphs, at least 28 bronze sculptures, and countless papercasts, ceramic editions, tapestries, glass etchings, and one-of-a-kind paintings, pastels, and sketches.

In 1963, his first exhibition was held at the Zieniewics Gallery in San Francisco. The following year, he visited Taos and met Henry Manchester and Dorothy Brett, who arranged a show for 1965. Also in 1964, Gorman and his father Carl were invited to exhibit together at the Philbrook Art Center in Tulsa for a show called "New Directions in American Indian Art." In 1965, they showed together at the Heard Museum's Gallery of Indian Art in Phoenix; a review in the *Arizona Republic* was headlined "Gormans—Father and Son Rebels in Indian Art." That same year, Gorman’s first solo exhibition at the Manchester Gallery in Taos sold out. In 1966, he made his first lithographs with printer Jose Sanchez in Mexico City, and helped organize the American Indian Arts Group in San Francisco, serving as chairman of its painting committee. In 1968, he borrowed money from his parents to buy the Manchester Gallery, renaming it the Navajo Gallery—the first fine art gallery owned by a Native American. It opened with work by 55 artists. Between 1971 and 1975, he produced at least 52 lithographs with the Tamarind Institute in Albuquerque.

In 1973, Gorman was the only living artist included in the "Masterworks from the Museum of the American Indian" exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. Two of his pieces appeared on the catalog’s front and back covers. In its review, the *New York Times* called him "the Picasso of American-Indian art." The following year, his paintings were added to the Museum of the American Indian on Broadway, and the *Times* noted that "no one stands higher among living American Indian painters." Gorman moved from California to New Mexico, and his work was featured in a PBS series on American Indian artists, alongside Helen Hardin, Charles Loloma, Allan Houser, Joseph Lonewolf, and Fritz Scholder.

In 1998, he donated art to support Tom Udall’s campaign for the U.S. House of Representatives. On April 1, 2003, at the request of Diné College president Cassandra Manuelito-Kerkvliet, he donated his personal library to the college. On September 18, 2005, Gorman fell at home and was taken to Holy Cross Hospital in Taos, then transferred to the University of New Mexico Hospital in Albuquerque. He died on November 3 at age 74. New Mexico governor Bill Richardson ordered flags flown at half-staff. Gorman was buried at Colonias Cemetery.

Gorman was influenced by Mexican social realists Diego Rivera, David Siqueiros, and Rufino Tamayo. Their use of color and form pushed him from abstraction toward abstract realism. He developed a distinctive style that blended abstract shapes with realistic subjects. In Mexico, he also learned stone lithography from master printer Jose Sanchez, a technique he used throughout his life to produce original works.