Nationality
American, Ojibwa
Preview
Date of Work
2005
Medium
Linoleum Block Print
Edition #
29/44
Signature
Bottom right
Height
20
Width
30
Collection/Provenance
Contemporary Indigenous Art Collections: Student Government Collection
Status
Pulled for Exhibition
Location
UND Art Collections Repository
Artist Bio
Gordon Coons' heritage is Ojibwa from Lake Superior Chippewa Band of Wisconsin and Ottawa from Michigan. He is an enrolled member of the Lac Courte Oreilles Tribe of northern Wisconsin. Originally from Wisconsin, Gordon is now living in Minneapolis Minnesota.
Gordon is a self taught artist, creating works in a variety of mediums including linoleum block prints, paintings, pen and ink, creations in stone and wood and assembled sculptures. Although his artwork is more contemporary, each piece portrays a unique view of traditional native stories.
Gordon has been showing artwork at juried shows around the country, including Eiteljorg Museum of Indianapolis; Art Northwest of Portland, Oregon; University of Kansas Museum of Anthropology at Lawrence, Kansas; Oscar Howe Arts Center and Dakota Discovery Museum at Mitchell, South Dakota; Gathering of People Wind and Water, Rapid City, South Dakota.
He has won numerous recognition awards and commissions for graphics/prints, paintings and assembled sculptures. His works have become part of permanent collections of institutions such as the Minneapolis American Business Development Corporation; Red Cloud Indian School Heritage in Pine Ridge, South Dakota; the Summit Medical Center of Oakland, California; Red Earth, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma; Akta Lakota Museum & Cultural Center, Chamberlain, South Dakota; and Lac Courte Oreilles Community Library, Reserve, Wisconsin.
Additional Information
This work is inspired by the Red-Winged Blackbirds and Crows that can be found in the bulrushes on the shoreline of the allotment land of Gordon Koon's grandfather on the Chief Lake shoreline on the Lac Courte Oreilles reservation in Northern Wisconsin. The artist believes that the song that the Crows sing is a "change song" as they want to be able to join the happy chorus of the Red-Winged Blackbirds. The artist depicts this interaction in this print and uses it to express the sentiment that despite what one may want, everyone must stay true to who they are.
This print was awarded 1st place in the Graphics category at the 5th Annual Indigenous Peoples Art Market in 2005.
Condition
Excellent
