Interview of Ellen Lanyon conducted 1975 December 5-1976 January 18 by James Crawford for the Archives of American Art.
Lanyon speaks of family background; interests in art and music and collecting objects and antiques; her early art education; remembrances of 1933 Chicago World's Fair; Art Institute of Chicago; Momentum group; Oxbow Summer School of Painting; her work and techniques; exhibitions; Institute of Design; marriage and move to University of Iowa; Iowa art department, Iowa print group; Fulbright to England; travel in France and Italy; return to Chicago; founding of graphic workshop; Hairy Who group; The Imagists; Seven and Up exhibitions; Red Grooms in Chicago; and commissions. She recalls George Buehr, Margo Hoff, Dudley Crafts Watson, Vera Berdich, Joseph Hirsch, Carl Schneiwind, Kathleen Blackshear, Mauricio Lasansky, Gertrude Abercrombie, Julius Carleback, Roland Ginzel, and Edgar Rupprecht. She also discusses her family; changes in medium and style of her artwork; symbolism, and feminism.
Biographical / Historical:
Ellen Lanyon (1926-2013) was a painter and printmaker from Chicago, Illinois.
Provenance:
This interview is part of the Archives of American Art Oral History Program, started in 1958 to document the history of the visual arts in the United States, primarily through interviews with artists, historians, dealers, critics and administrators.
Restrictions:
This interview is open for research. Contact Reference Services for more information.
Funding for this interview was provided by Matilda Wilson. This interview received support from the Smithsonian American Women's History Initiative Pool.
National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; gift of Kate Capshaw and Steven Spielberg; Judith Kern and Kent Whealy; Tommie L. Pegues and Donald A. Capoccia; Clarence, DeLoise, and Brenda Gaines; Jonathan and Nancy Lee Kemper; The Stoneridge Fund of Amy and Marc Meadows; Robert E. Meyerhoff and Rheda Becker; Catherine and Michael Podell; Mark and Cindy Aron; Lyndon J. Barrois and Janine Sherman Barrois; The Honorable John and Louise Bryson; Paul and Rose Carter; Bob and Jane Clark; Lisa R. Davis; Shirley Ross Davis and Family; Alan and Lois Fern; Conrad and Constance Hipkins; Sharon and John Hoffman; Audrey M. Irmas; John Legend and Chrissy Teigen; Eileen Harris Norton; Helen Hilton Raiser; Philip and Elizabeth Ryan; Roselyne Chroman Swig; Josef Vascovitz and Lisa Goodman; Eileen Baird; Dennis and Joyce Black Family Charitable Foundation; Shelley Brazier; Aryn Drake-Lee; Andy and Teri Goodman; Randi Charno Levine and Jeffrey E. Levine; Fred M. Levin and Nancy Livingston, The Shenson Foundation; Monique Meloche Gallery, Chicago; Arthur Lewis and Hau Nguyen; Sara and John Schram; Alyssa Taubman and Robert Rothman
This collection includes eight photographic prints made by Ho-Chunk artist Tom Jones between 1998 and 2001. The majority of the prints are from the "Ho-Chunk People" series which document the contemporary life of members of the Ho Chunk Nation of Wisconsin. The prints are large format, black and white, silver gelatin prints.
Scope and Contents:
This collection includes eight signed photographic prints made by Ho-Chunk artist Tom Jones between 1998 and 2001. The prints are large format, black and white, silver gelatin prints either 18 x 22 inches or 16 x 20 inches.
The photographs from the "Ho-Chunk People" series, which documents the contemporary life of members of the Ho Chunk Nation of Wisconsin, include portraits of Nina Cleveland, Dorothy Crowfreather, James Hill, Jim Funmaker (Choka), Herb Goodbear, and Bill O'Brian. There is also a photographic print from the Tree Marker series and one that shows a ceremonial meal set up in front of a longhouse.
Catalog numbers: P28507-P28511, P32369-P32371.
Artist Statement on the "Ho-Chunk People" series:
"Inside The Ho-Chunk People. For the past three years I have been working on a body of work photographing the contemporary life of my tribe, the Ho Chunk Nation of Wisconsin. By doing so, I hope to give both the tribe and the outside world the perspective from someone who comes from within the Ho Chunk community. Traditionally, photographs of the Native American Indian are taken by outsiders. We have generally been represented with beads and feathers, widely known through the extraordinary photographic portrayals of Edward Curtis. While this has been an aspect of our life, like many Native American Indians the Ho Chunk People still adhere to traditional ways inspite of adapting to the white culture that surrounds them. The emphasis of my current body of work is focused on the members of my tribe and the environments in which they live, giving a name and face to the individuals and their way of life in our own time. First and foremost, I am ever mindful of my responsibility to the tribe by doing this work to help carry on a sense of pride about who and what we are as a people."
Tom Jones, Artist's statement for the Exhibition "The Ho-Chunk People Photographs by Tom Jones" Nov, 2001, Rochester Art Center.
Arrangement:
Arranged numerically by catalog number.
Biographical / Historical:
Tom Jones (Professor of Photography, University of Wisconsin-Madison) is an artist, curator, writer, and educator. He graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Painting from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, a Master of Fine Arts in Photography and a Master of Arts in Museum Studies from Columbia College in Chicago, Illinois.
Jones' artwork is a commentary on American Indian identity, experience and perception. He is examining how American Indian culture is represented through popular culture and raises questions about these depictions of identity by non-natives and Natives alike. He continues to work on an ongoing photographic essay on the contemporary life of his tribe, the Ho-Chunk Nation of Wisconsin.
Jones co-authored the book "People of the Big Voice, Photographs of Ho-Chunk Families by Charles Van Schaick, 1879-1943." He is the co-curator for the exhibition and contributing author to the book, "For a Love of His People: The Photography of Horace Poolaw" for the National Museum of the American Indian. His artwork is in numerous private and public collections, most notably: The National Museum of the American Indian, Polaroid Corporation, Sprint Corporation, The Nerman Museum, The Minneapolis Institute of Art, The Museum of Contemporary of Native Arts, The Museum of Contemporary Photography, and Microsoft.
https://www.tomjonesho-chunk.com/blank-1
Provenance:
Purchased from the photographer Tom Jones, 2002 and 2004.
Restrictions:
Access to NMAI Archives Center collections is by appointment only, Monday - Friday, 9:30 am - 4:30 pm. Please contact the archives to make an appointment (phone: 301-238-1400, email: nmaiarchives@si.edu).
Rights:
Permission to publish materials from the collection must be requested from National Museum of the American Indian Archives Center. Please submit a written request to nmaiphotos@si.edu. For personal or classroom use, users are invited to download, print, photocopy, and distribute the images that are available online without prior written permission, provided that the files are not modified in any way, the Smithsonian Institution copyright notice (where applicable) is included, and the source of the image is identified as the National Museum of the American Indian. For more information please see the Smithsonian's Terms of Use and NMAI Archive Center's Digital Image request website.
Genre/Form:
Photographs
Photographs -- Silver gelatin prints
Citation:
Identification of specific item; Date (if known); Tom Jones II photographic prints from "Ho-Chunk People" series, NMAI.AC.056; National Museum of the American Indian Archives Center, Smithsonian Institution.
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, Gift of Jamie and Reese Genser, Toni and Doug Gordon, Donna and David Frieze, Kerry and Jeremy Sclar, 2023
