(Gorman was born in Chinle, AZ, 26 July 1932).
Native American Navajo painter, printmaker and sculptor. The style that he developed
stemmed from his experiences in Mexico and reveals the influence of his teachers as well as
that of the Mexican muralists. He maintained a studio and gallery for his own works and those
of other Native American artists in Taos, NM.
Gorman's Artistic Style
While Gorman has handled such subject-matter as interpretations of Navajo rugs and pottery
designs, his most successful and best-received works have been his studies of Navajo women.
He portrayed them as archetypes; as monumental, nurturing ‘earth mothers’.
In his paintings, Gorman grouped women in conventional poses or portrayed them in domestic
pursuits, ranging from stolid affirmations to revelations of inner beauty and grace.
Using various media, Gorman sometimes painted in acrylics, or drew the same subject in
pastels and pencil. He worked out personal technical processes and used these with great
effectiveness.
His style was well-suited to lithographs, which he has produced in great number. He has also
produced sculptures.
Gorman's Main Subject: Women
Gorman said he liked to capture the beauty of his people, especially the women. As he explained
in his autobiography, "Navajos always had respect for strong, powerful women who would go out
and chop wood, herd sheep, have babies in the field. My Indian woman isn't glamorous but she is
beautiful. She is earthy, nurturing, and it is a constant challenge to capture her infinite variety.
"I deal with the common woman who smells of the fields and maize. She lives and breathes… .
My women work and walk on the land. They need to be strong to survive. They have big hands,
strong feet. They are soft and strong like my grandmother who gave me life.
"My women are remote, withdrawn in their silence. They don't look out, but glance inward in
the Indian way. You know their faces, but not a thing about their thoughts. They do not reveal
whether they are looking at us or not.
"I like to think that my women represent a universal woman. They don't have to be from the
reservation. They could be from Scottsdale or Africa. They're composites of many women I've
known."
Gorman used live models when he drew Navajo women, but not all of his models were Navajo.
He said that by throwing a blanket over a Japanese woman, he could end up with a Navajo
model. In fact, one of his favorite models was a young Japanese woman.
Gorman's Background
Rudolph Carl Gorman was born on July 26, 1931, in Chinle, Arizona, though some sources give his
birth year as 1932. He grew up on the Navajo reservation in Chinle, Arizona, not far from
Canyon de Chelly in the northeastern part of the state. The ancient home of the Anasazi and a
place steeped in legend, power, and magic, the Chinle area served for centuries as a refuge for
the Navajo from their Indian, Spanish, and Anglo enemies. The Navajo traditionally lived in
earth-covered dwellings called hogans, while ekeing out a subsistence living from the land.
Gorman's family, like its ancestors, grazed sheep on the plains. Gorman's father, Carl Gorman,
attended mission schools as a boy and eventually became a wealthy cowboy. During World War
II, Carl Gorman was a member of the Navajo Code Talkers, an elite group of U.S. Marines who
developed a Navajo-based communications code that the Japanese were unable to break. When
Gorman was about twelve, his parents separated. Carl Gorman left to attend art school and
later became a recognized painter and teacher at the University of California at Davis.
Gorman described himself in his autobiography R.C. Gorman: The Radiance of My People as a
descendant of sand painters, silversmiths, chanters, and weavers on both sides of his family.
In 1864, Gorman's paternal great-grandfather was forced to march four hundred miles during
the Navajo Long March from Canyon de Chelly to Fort Sumner. At the army fort he learned the
art of silversmithing, which he taught to the rest of his tribe. Later, while attending the first
government school at Fort Defiance, he was given the name Nelson Carl Gorman.
Gorman's mother, though a devout Catholic, was raised in a family that still held to traditional
Navajo religious practices. According to her son, she was in labor for twenty hours before he
was born prematurely. The infant grew strong on a diet of coffee and goat milk prescribed by
his great-grandmother.
Gorman was raised with two brothers, a sister, and several half-sisters and half-brothers. His
family lived in an old stone house without running water. The local Catholic church allowed the
family to use its outdoor faucet, and Gorman later recalled hauling water to the family home.
Early Interest in Art
As a boy, Gorman modeled animals and toys out of clay from the local swimming hole. Later he
drew with charcoal on rocks. When he started school and discovered pencils, papers, and books,
he began drawing with abandon. His first school, Chinle Public School, was a one-room structure
heated with a wood stove. He recalled that his first work of art in school was a drawing of a
naked woman; it brought spankings from his teacher and his mother.
In R.C. Gorman: A Portrait, Carl Gorman recalled the origins of his son's career: "R.C. always
carried a tablet and drew, wherever we were. We were dipping sheep once, and he got a little
girl to model for him. A white man working with us saw the drawing, got me, and said, 'Look.
Someday he's going to be a great artist.' And it's true. He was less than ten years old at that
time. I never held his hand, or led him like a teacher. His eyes were his teachers."
In 1943, Gorman enrolled in a Catholic boarding school on the Navajo reservation. In the fall of
1944, he switched to the Ganado Presbyterian Mission School. In the seventh grade, Gorman
began selling his artwork to nurses and doctors at the mission school. He graduated from
Ganado Mission High School in 1950.
As a child, Gorman never received instruction in the Navajo religion. "The Catholics and
Protestants got to me first," he wrote in his autobiography. Although he rejected Catholicism
after his experience at the Catholic boarding school, he later considered himself a good
Catholic.
In the Navy
After briefly enrolling at Arizona State College (now Northern Arizona University), Gorman
joined the Navy in 1951. It was at that time that he began calling himself R.C., because, he
said, Rudolph Carl didn't seem to fit him. Following boot camp, Gorman was assigned to duty in
Guam. He attended Guam Territorial College, intending to become a writer. During this time,
he picked up pocket money by sketching girlfriends of officers and enlisted men from
photographs they provided.
In 1955, after leaving the Navy, Gorman enrolled again at Arizona State College, with a major
in literature and a minor in art. In the summer of 1956, he worked at Disneyland, where he
dressed as a Native American and paddled a canoe.
San Francisco and Mexico
After his art began to sell, he moved to San Francisco. On a trip to Mexico, Gorman first saw
the murals of Guadalajara depicting the history of the Mexican people. He later wrote in his
autobiography, "Instead of trying to paint like a European, I started painting like a Mexican, I
guess, except that I was using the Navajos for my subject matter." In Mexico City, Gorman
saw the works of Diego Rivera and other artists. According to Gorman, "Rivera went to Europe
to discover himself. I went to Mexico and discovered Rivera and myself."
Upon returning from Mexico, Gorman applied for a grant from the Navajo Tribal Council. He
was awarded a scholarship to attend Mexico City College in 1958. After three months, Gorman
returned to San Francisco, where he held a job in the post office at night and painted by day.
Later he worked as a nude model for colleges and private art studios in the San Francisco Bay
area.
Taos
In the early 1960s, Gorman relocated briefly to Houston, Texas. In 1964, he discovered Taos,
New Mexico, which he loved at first sight. After he showed some slides to gallery owner
Dorothy Brett of the Manchester Gallery in Taos, she agreed to handle his work. Following an
extremely successful show in Taos, Gorman returned to San Francisco, where he began
experimenting with landscapes, pottery, and sand paintings. In 1966, on another trip to Mexico
City, Gorman did his first work in lithography. During this trip, Gorman was introduced to the
noted print-maker Jose Sanchez.
When the Manchester Gallery in Taos came up for sale in the late 1960s, Gorman borrowed
money from his parents and bought it. He reopened the gallery as the Navajo Gallery in 1968,
starting with 55 artists. But after the others' works failed to sell, Gorman began selling only
his own material. His drawings sold for $100 apiece.
Magic Mountain
Gorman wrote in his autobiography, "It's strange I should come to Taos. The Navajos are
encircled by the four sacred mountains, and within those four mountains the Navajo feels, I
think, protected, but on the other hand inhibited. I'm outside of the sacred Navajo mountains
and feel like a very independent creature who is protected by another mountain that is quite
magic, the Taos mountain."
Gorman was visited in Taos by many celebrities, including Elizabeth Taylor, Jacqueline Onassis,
Arnold Schwartzeneggar, Tab Hunter, Alan Ginsberg, Caesar Romero, Danny DeVito, and
baseball pitcher Jim Palmer.
Indian Artist
Gorman was not offended at being called an "Indian artist." He wrote in his autobiography, "I
am what I am, and its obvious I'm not white, black, or Oriental. I am an Indian. I am an artist.
I'm an Indian painting Indians, and if it worked out for me, then it's all well and good."
But Gorman added: "I've always felt successful. Even when I wasn't making any money, I just
knew it was all there. I always believed in myself. I knew I had talent and there was just no
doubt about it. I just didn't give up."
Gorman gave thought to his legacy in his autobiography: "If I'm remembered at all, I'd be very
surprised and amused. I don't really think about it or worry about it. But I suppose I would
like to be remembered that I was an earnest worker. That I cared. That I know anyone can
get what they want if they work hard enough. After all, I'm just a little boy from the
reservation who used to herd sheep at Black Mountain."
Native American Navajo painter, printmaker and sculptor. The style that he developed
stemmed from his experiences in Mexico and reveals the influence of his teachers as well as
that of the Mexican muralists. He maintained a studio and gallery for his own works and those
of other Native American artists in Taos, NM.
Gorman's Artistic Style
While Gorman has handled such subject-matter as interpretations of Navajo rugs and pottery
designs, his most successful and best-received works have been his studies of Navajo women.
He portrayed them as archetypes; as monumental, nurturing ‘earth mothers’.
In his paintings, Gorman grouped women in conventional poses or portrayed them in domestic
pursuits, ranging from stolid affirmations to revelations of inner beauty and grace.
Using various media, Gorman sometimes painted in acrylics, or drew the same subject in
pastels and pencil. He worked out personal technical processes and used these with great
effectiveness.
His style was well-suited to lithographs, which he has produced in great number. He has also
produced sculptures.
Gorman's Main Subject: Women
Gorman said he liked to capture the beauty of his people, especially the women. As he explained
in his autobiography, "Navajos always had respect for strong, powerful women who would go out
and chop wood, herd sheep, have babies in the field. My Indian woman isn't glamorous but she is
beautiful. She is earthy, nurturing, and it is a constant challenge to capture her infinite variety.
"I deal with the common woman who smells of the fields and maize. She lives and breathes… .
My women work and walk on the land. They need to be strong to survive. They have big hands,
strong feet. They are soft and strong like my grandmother who gave me life.
"My women are remote, withdrawn in their silence. They don't look out, but glance inward in
the Indian way. You know their faces, but not a thing about their thoughts. They do not reveal
whether they are looking at us or not.
"I like to think that my women represent a universal woman. They don't have to be from the
reservation. They could be from Scottsdale or Africa. They're composites of many women I've
known."
Gorman used live models when he drew Navajo women, but not all of his models were Navajo.
He said that by throwing a blanket over a Japanese woman, he could end up with a Navajo
model. In fact, one of his favorite models was a young Japanese woman.
Gorman's Background
Rudolph Carl Gorman was born on July 26, 1931, in Chinle, Arizona, though some sources give his
birth year as 1932. He grew up on the Navajo reservation in Chinle, Arizona, not far from
Canyon de Chelly in the northeastern part of the state. The ancient home of the Anasazi and a
place steeped in legend, power, and magic, the Chinle area served for centuries as a refuge for
the Navajo from their Indian, Spanish, and Anglo enemies. The Navajo traditionally lived in
earth-covered dwellings called hogans, while ekeing out a subsistence living from the land.
Gorman's family, like its ancestors, grazed sheep on the plains. Gorman's father, Carl Gorman,
attended mission schools as a boy and eventually became a wealthy cowboy. During World War
II, Carl Gorman was a member of the Navajo Code Talkers, an elite group of U.S. Marines who
developed a Navajo-based communications code that the Japanese were unable to break. When
Gorman was about twelve, his parents separated. Carl Gorman left to attend art school and
later became a recognized painter and teacher at the University of California at Davis.
Gorman described himself in his autobiography R.C. Gorman: The Radiance of My People as a
descendant of sand painters, silversmiths, chanters, and weavers on both sides of his family.
In 1864, Gorman's paternal great-grandfather was forced to march four hundred miles during
the Navajo Long March from Canyon de Chelly to Fort Sumner. At the army fort he learned the
art of silversmithing, which he taught to the rest of his tribe. Later, while attending the first
government school at Fort Defiance, he was given the name Nelson Carl Gorman.
Gorman's mother, though a devout Catholic, was raised in a family that still held to traditional
Navajo religious practices. According to her son, she was in labor for twenty hours before he
was born prematurely. The infant grew strong on a diet of coffee and goat milk prescribed by
his great-grandmother.
Gorman was raised with two brothers, a sister, and several half-sisters and half-brothers. His
family lived in an old stone house without running water. The local Catholic church allowed the
family to use its outdoor faucet, and Gorman later recalled hauling water to the family home.
Early Interest in Art
As a boy, Gorman modeled animals and toys out of clay from the local swimming hole. Later he
drew with charcoal on rocks. When he started school and discovered pencils, papers, and books,
he began drawing with abandon. His first school, Chinle Public School, was a one-room structure
heated with a wood stove. He recalled that his first work of art in school was a drawing of a
naked woman; it brought spankings from his teacher and his mother.
In R.C. Gorman: A Portrait, Carl Gorman recalled the origins of his son's career: "R.C. always
carried a tablet and drew, wherever we were. We were dipping sheep once, and he got a little
girl to model for him. A white man working with us saw the drawing, got me, and said, 'Look.
Someday he's going to be a great artist.' And it's true. He was less than ten years old at that
time. I never held his hand, or led him like a teacher. His eyes were his teachers."
In 1943, Gorman enrolled in a Catholic boarding school on the Navajo reservation. In the fall of
1944, he switched to the Ganado Presbyterian Mission School. In the seventh grade, Gorman
began selling his artwork to nurses and doctors at the mission school. He graduated from
Ganado Mission High School in 1950.
As a child, Gorman never received instruction in the Navajo religion. "The Catholics and
Protestants got to me first," he wrote in his autobiography. Although he rejected Catholicism
after his experience at the Catholic boarding school, he later considered himself a good
Catholic.
In the Navy
After briefly enrolling at Arizona State College (now Northern Arizona University), Gorman
joined the Navy in 1951. It was at that time that he began calling himself R.C., because, he
said, Rudolph Carl didn't seem to fit him. Following boot camp, Gorman was assigned to duty in
Guam. He attended Guam Territorial College, intending to become a writer. During this time,
he picked up pocket money by sketching girlfriends of officers and enlisted men from
photographs they provided.
In 1955, after leaving the Navy, Gorman enrolled again at Arizona State College, with a major
in literature and a minor in art. In the summer of 1956, he worked at Disneyland, where he
dressed as a Native American and paddled a canoe.
San Francisco and Mexico
After his art began to sell, he moved to San Francisco. On a trip to Mexico, Gorman first saw
the murals of Guadalajara depicting the history of the Mexican people. He later wrote in his
autobiography, "Instead of trying to paint like a European, I started painting like a Mexican, I
guess, except that I was using the Navajos for my subject matter." In Mexico City, Gorman
saw the works of Diego Rivera and other artists. According to Gorman, "Rivera went to Europe
to discover himself. I went to Mexico and discovered Rivera and myself."
Upon returning from Mexico, Gorman applied for a grant from the Navajo Tribal Council. He
was awarded a scholarship to attend Mexico City College in 1958. After three months, Gorman
returned to San Francisco, where he held a job in the post office at night and painted by day.
Later he worked as a nude model for colleges and private art studios in the San Francisco Bay
area.
Taos
In the early 1960s, Gorman relocated briefly to Houston, Texas. In 1964, he discovered Taos,
New Mexico, which he loved at first sight. After he showed some slides to gallery owner
Dorothy Brett of the Manchester Gallery in Taos, she agreed to handle his work. Following an
extremely successful show in Taos, Gorman returned to San Francisco, where he began
experimenting with landscapes, pottery, and sand paintings. In 1966, on another trip to Mexico
City, Gorman did his first work in lithography. During this trip, Gorman was introduced to the
noted print-maker Jose Sanchez.
When the Manchester Gallery in Taos came up for sale in the late 1960s, Gorman borrowed
money from his parents and bought it. He reopened the gallery as the Navajo Gallery in 1968,
starting with 55 artists. But after the others' works failed to sell, Gorman began selling only
his own material. His drawings sold for $100 apiece.
Magic Mountain
Gorman wrote in his autobiography, "It's strange I should come to Taos. The Navajos are
encircled by the four sacred mountains, and within those four mountains the Navajo feels, I
think, protected, but on the other hand inhibited. I'm outside of the sacred Navajo mountains
and feel like a very independent creature who is protected by another mountain that is quite
magic, the Taos mountain."
Gorman was visited in Taos by many celebrities, including Elizabeth Taylor, Jacqueline Onassis,
Arnold Schwartzeneggar, Tab Hunter, Alan Ginsberg, Caesar Romero, Danny DeVito, and
baseball pitcher Jim Palmer.
Indian Artist
Gorman was not offended at being called an "Indian artist." He wrote in his autobiography, "I
am what I am, and its obvious I'm not white, black, or Oriental. I am an Indian. I am an artist.
I'm an Indian painting Indians, and if it worked out for me, then it's all well and good."
But Gorman added: "I've always felt successful. Even when I wasn't making any money, I just
knew it was all there. I always believed in myself. I knew I had talent and there was just no
doubt about it. I just didn't give up."
Gorman gave thought to his legacy in his autobiography: "If I'm remembered at all, I'd be very
surprised and amused. I don't really think about it or worry about it. But I suppose I would
like to be remembered that I was an earnest worker. That I cared. That I know anyone can
get what they want if they work hard enough. After all, I'm just a little boy from the
reservation who used to herd sheep at Black Mountain."
R. C. Gorman Navajo Painter
