Tiger exhibit balances gesture, detail
An elegant economy of means — balancing action and gesture with delicate detail — is found in the “Life and Legacy: The Art of Jerome Tiger” exhibit.
The show, documenting the art of the noted Muscogee (Creek) and Seminole artist, is at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum, 1700 NW 63.
There is something isolated and even existential about the figures, emerging from the void of the backgrounds in his works, done on poster board, paper or canvas.
Small works by Tiger (1941-1967) often seem to tell a story, like the frames of an animated film or cartoon — not trying to be funny, but “tell it like it is,” about Indian life.
For example, in his “Off To The Stomp Dance,” we first see a horseman and people in a wagon, following another wagon toward a giant orange sun on the bluegray horizon.
Other drawings on paper portray a stomp dance “great leader” with flailing arms and legs, and a dance watchman helping a drunk man away, or relaying stomp dance news.
Richer in color are a 1962 tempera on tan paper of “Stomp Dancers” circling a campfire, and a 1964 tempera of a single dancer, clad in a long green shirt, with spurs and a feather in his hat.
Stickball is another Indian activity, handled with great artistry, whether it’s two men in a grudge match or a larger, calligraphic swirl of men, playing the game “Beginning to End.”
Dealing with athletic competition, too, are a sketch of men armwrestling and a drawing of a man standing over someone he knocked down. Tiger was a state Golden Gloves champion.
Subjects of deft, lowkey historical portraits include “Se-QuahYah,” “William McIntosh” and”The Cherokee Blackbird, Sam Houston,” all three wearing turban-like headgear.
But it is the sometimes life and death importance of weather — and the coming of winter — that supplies one of the best subjects of Tiger, especially in his “medium of choice,” tempera.
Small figures, walking or on horseback, move toward us in a white expanse in a temperagraphite drawing on paper, and away from us, in an oil canvas, both called “Trail of Tears.”
Among other tempera, weather-related works are “Come Winter,” portraying a man watching the sun set, and “Their Guardian Spirit, in which a rider hovers over children walking piggyback.
Even more touching is Tiger’s “Faithful To The End,” a small tempera on blue-gray poster board depiction of a loyal horse standing over its fallen rider, face down on the ground.
Curated by the museum’s Eric Singleton, the show of work by Tiger, who died at age 26 in a handgun accident, is highly recommended in its run through May 13.
— John Brandenburg, for The Oklahoman