Ernest Spybuck
Encyclopedia
Ernest Spybuck was a Native American art
ist. Born on a reservation in Indian Territory
, Spybuck was encouraged in his artistic endeavors by a meeting with a visiting anthropologist, M.R. Harrington. His detailed depictions of ceremonies, games and social gatherings were used to illustrate many anthropological publications. Spybuck has been received very positively by both Native American and artistic communities. Many of his works are now held by the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian
.
-Shawnee
Reservation near Tecumseh, Oklahoma
, to the White Turkey Band of the Absentee Shawnee, of the Rabbit clan. His parents were Peahchepeahso and John Spybuck. His Indian name was Mathkacea or Mahthela. He preferred spelling his first name as "Earnest."
By the time he was born, the Shawnee, like many tribes that had originally resided east of the Mississippi River, were largely settled in Indian Territory due to the Indian Removal
policies of the U. S. Government. Many different tribal peoples were settled in close proximity to each other, so Spybuck grew up familiar with neighboring Sauk and Fox, Kickapoo
, and Delaware
peoples.
He attended school at Shawnee Boarding School in Shawnee, Oklahoma
and at Sacred Heart Mission in south-central Oklahoma. According to his teacher at Shawnee Boarding School, at the age of eight he would do nothing but draw and paint pictures with subjects drawn from his life. His education never went beyond the Third Reader.
He married at the age of 19, and eventually had three children.
, in 1910. At the time, Harrington was collecting specimens and researching the tribes of the area for the Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation. His assistant brought Spybuck to his office, where he was able to examine the young man's "unsophisticated" drawings. He appreciated the detailed accuracy of the equipment and dress depicted, and engaged him to create water colors of ceremonies and social life of the tribes in the vicinity.
Spybuck produced watercolors for Harrington through 1921, and Harrington used some of them in a couple of monographs published by the Heye Foundation. Harrington also interviewed Spybuck for a work on the Shawnee that he never published, but he deposited his notes and Spybuck's paintings with the Museum of the American Indian, which is now the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian
.
One reviewer discounts the influence of Harrington's patronage, claiming that Spybuck was already committed to depicting daily reservation life at their meeting and that his art matured along with his involvement with his local community, which included participating in the social activities and ceremonies that interested ethnographers.
His "documentary realism" gave meticulous attention to dress, accouterments and gesture, set in a simplified three-dimensional setting with well-defined foreground and background. He developed his own unique techniques, such as painting a cross-section "window" in a tipi or lodge where a ceremony would take place to show the activity inside, while also showing the landscape and time of day outside.
In Western European terms, Spybuck's style might be called naïve art
, but his works differs from most naïve artists' due to the influence of ethnographic patronage that guided his choice to include certain details and an infusion of a sense of humor and personality. His scenes can provide subtle hints of attitudes and personalities of individual people and often include whimsical details on the periphery that contrast with the central activities.
, in which the artist or writer assimilates the techniques of ethnographers to create representations of themselves and their cultures, with the implication of an asymmetrical power relationship between the ethnographer patron and the Native artist. Along with Spybuck, Dobkins names Jesse Cornplanter
(Seneca), Peter Pitseolak
(Inuit
), and Frank Day
(Maidu
) as artists who practiced autoethnography to regain control over representations of their cultures and to retrieve and preserve their traditions. Other reviewers recognize Spybuck as an Indian artist who is a recorder and preserver of traditional practices in the midst of social change.
In Spybuck's life, works by Native American artists were beginning to become exhibited as art rather than ethnographic specimens. Shared Visions: Native American Painters and Sculptors in the Twentieth Century was an exhibit that opened at the Heard Museum
, Phoenix, Arizona
in 1991 and then toured to four major museums in the United States. The exhibition brought together three generations of artists to trace the history of the Native American Fine Art Movement. Together with Arapaho
artist Carl Sweezy
, the exhibit placed Spybuck in the earliest stage of the movement, Early Narrative Style, in which Native artists documented the upheavals in Indian Country
in the late 19th century and early 20th century. They adopted and adapted western techniques of art and ethnography to produce works that documented the transformation of traditional ways under the restrictions of reservation
life.
was first adopted by Shawnee people. He died in 1949 at the age of 66 and was buried in a family plot near his home.
It has been noted that by his mid-50s he had never left the county of his birth. In addition to having his art published in many books on American Indian cultures, several museums purchased his work for their collections. He was commissioned to produce murals for the Creek Indian Council House and Museum
in Okmulgee, Oklahoma
and at the Oklahoma Historical Society Museum
in Oklahoma City
. During his life his work was exhibited at the Museum of the American Indian in New York City and at the American Indian Exposition and Congress in Tulsa, Oklahoma
.
Native American art
Visual arts by indigenous peoples of the Americas encompasses the visual artistic traditions of the indigenous peoples of the Americas from ancient times to the present...
ist. Born on a reservation in Indian Territory
Indian Territory
The Indian Territory, also known as the Indian Territories and the Indian Country, was land set aside within the United States for the settlement of American Indians...
, Spybuck was encouraged in his artistic endeavors by a meeting with a visiting anthropologist, M.R. Harrington. His detailed depictions of ceremonies, games and social gatherings were used to illustrate many anthropological publications. Spybuck has been received very positively by both Native American and artistic communities. Many of his works are now held by the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian
National Museum of the American Indian
The National Museum of the American Indian is a museum operated under the auspices of the Smithsonian Institution that is dedicated to the life, languages, literature, history, and arts of the native Americans of the Western Hemisphere...
.
Early life
Ernest (Earnest) Spybuck was born on the PotawatomiPotawatomi
The Potawatomi are a Native American people of the upper Mississippi River region. They traditionally speak the Potawatomi language, a member of the Algonquian family. In the Potawatomi language, they generally call themselves Bodéwadmi, a name that means "keepers of the fire" and that was applied...
-Shawnee
Shawnee
The Shawnee, Shaawanwaki, Shaawanooki and Shaawanowi lenaweeki, are an Algonquian-speaking people native to North America. Historically they inhabited the areas of Ohio, Virginia, West Virginia, Western Maryland, Kentucky, Indiana, and Pennsylvania...
Reservation near Tecumseh, Oklahoma
Tecumseh, Oklahoma
Tecumseh is a city in Pottawatomie County, Oklahoma, United States. The population was 6,457 at the 2010 census.-Geography:Tecumseh is located at ....
, to the White Turkey Band of the Absentee Shawnee, of the Rabbit clan. His parents were Peahchepeahso and John Spybuck. His Indian name was Mathkacea or Mahthela. He preferred spelling his first name as "Earnest."
By the time he was born, the Shawnee, like many tribes that had originally resided east of the Mississippi River, were largely settled in Indian Territory due to the Indian Removal
Indian Removal
Indian removal was a nineteenth century policy of the government of the United States to relocate Native American tribes living east of the Mississippi River to lands west of the river...
policies of the U. S. Government. Many different tribal peoples were settled in close proximity to each other, so Spybuck grew up familiar with neighboring Sauk and Fox, Kickapoo
Kickapoo Tribe of Oklahoma
The Kickapoo Tribe of Oklahoma is one of three federally recognized Kickapoo tribes in the United States. There are also Kickapoo tribes in Kansas, Texas, and Mexico. The Kickapoo are a Woodland tribe, who speak an Algonquian language.-Early history:...
, and Delaware
Lenape
The Lenape are an Algonquian group of Native Americans of the Northeastern Woodlands. They are also called Delaware Indians. As a result of the American Revolutionary War and later Indian removals from the eastern United States, today the main groups live in Canada, where they are enrolled in the...
peoples.
He attended school at Shawnee Boarding School in Shawnee, Oklahoma
Shawnee, Oklahoma
Shawnee is a city in Pottawatomie County, Oklahoma, United States. The population was 29,857 at the 2010 census. The city is part of the Oklahoma City-Shawnee Combined Statistical Area; it is also the county seat of Pottawatomie County and the principal city of the Shawnee Micropolitan Statistical...
and at Sacred Heart Mission in south-central Oklahoma. According to his teacher at Shawnee Boarding School, at the age of eight he would do nothing but draw and paint pictures with subjects drawn from his life. His education never went beyond the Third Reader.
He married at the age of 19, and eventually had three children.
Recognition by M. R. Harrington
Spybuck's career as an artist began early in his life with an encounter with anthropologist Mark Raymond HarringtonMark Raymond Harrington
Mark Raymond Harrington was curator of archaeology at the Southwest Museum 1928-1964 and discoverer of ancient Pueblo structures near Overton, Nevada and Little Lake, California.-Early life:...
, in 1910. At the time, Harrington was collecting specimens and researching the tribes of the area for the Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation. His assistant brought Spybuck to his office, where he was able to examine the young man's "unsophisticated" drawings. He appreciated the detailed accuracy of the equipment and dress depicted, and engaged him to create water colors of ceremonies and social life of the tribes in the vicinity.
Spybuck produced watercolors for Harrington through 1921, and Harrington used some of them in a couple of monographs published by the Heye Foundation. Harrington also interviewed Spybuck for a work on the Shawnee that he never published, but he deposited his notes and Spybuck's paintings with the Museum of the American Indian, which is now the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian
National Museum of the American Indian
The National Museum of the American Indian is a museum operated under the auspices of the Smithsonian Institution that is dedicated to the life, languages, literature, history, and arts of the native Americans of the Western Hemisphere...
.
One reviewer discounts the influence of Harrington's patronage, claiming that Spybuck was already committed to depicting daily reservation life at their meeting and that his art matured along with his involvement with his local community, which included participating in the social activities and ceremonies that interested ethnographers.
Artistic style
Spybuck told Harrington that he preferred painting cowboys, livestock, and range scenes, but through Harrington's patronage, Spybuck's style evolved, particularly in his choice of subjects and the way he painted them. He painted in "primitive realism" local scenes of ceremonies, games, social gatherings and home life that he was familiar with and often participated in. His style recalled Plains representative art that often identified individuals by depicting details of dress and accoutrement, but he took the realistic depiction of the figures and setting in a new direction that was uniquely his own.His "documentary realism" gave meticulous attention to dress, accouterments and gesture, set in a simplified three-dimensional setting with well-defined foreground and background. He developed his own unique techniques, such as painting a cross-section "window" in a tipi or lodge where a ceremony would take place to show the activity inside, while also showing the landscape and time of day outside.
In Western European terms, Spybuck's style might be called naïve art
Naïve art
Naïve art is a classification of art that is often characterized by a childlike simplicity in its subject matter and technique. While many naïve artists appear, from their works, to have little or no formal art training, this is often not true...
, but his works differs from most naïve artists' due to the influence of ethnographic patronage that guided his choice to include certain details and an infusion of a sense of humor and personality. His scenes can provide subtle hints of attitudes and personalities of individual people and often include whimsical details on the periphery that contrast with the central activities.
Critical responses
Like Harrington, other reviewers recognize that Spybuck possessed a remarkable talent, but it often served a practical purpose in the domain of ethnography. His paintings served as illustrations for numerous anthropological writings. Dobkins calls this practice autoethnographyAutoethnography
Autoethnography is a form or method of social research that explores the researcher's personal experience and connects this autobiographical story to wider cultural, political, and social meanings and understandings...
, in which the artist or writer assimilates the techniques of ethnographers to create representations of themselves and their cultures, with the implication of an asymmetrical power relationship between the ethnographer patron and the Native artist. Along with Spybuck, Dobkins names Jesse Cornplanter
Jesse Cornplanter
Jesse J. Cornplanter was a Seneca artist and author. His Seneca name was Hayonhwonhish. As an author he wrote Legends of the Longhouse, which records many Iroquois traditional stories.-Personal:...
(Seneca), Peter Pitseolak
Peter Pitseolak
Peter Pitseolak was an Inuit photographer, artist and historian.-Life:]...
(Inuit
Inuit
The Inuit are a group of culturally similar indigenous peoples inhabiting the Arctic regions of Canada , Denmark , Russia and the United States . Inuit means “the people” in the Inuktitut language...
), and Frank Day
Frank Day (artist)
Frank Day was a Native American artist from California.-Early life:Frank Day was born on February 24, 1902 in Berry Creek, California. His grandfather was Big Bill Day and his father was Twoboe. His father was a leader in the Bald Rock Konkow Maidu...
(Maidu
Maidu
The Maidu are a group of Native Americans who live in Northern California. They reside in the central Sierra Nevada, in the drainage area of the Feather and American Rivers...
) as artists who practiced autoethnography to regain control over representations of their cultures and to retrieve and preserve their traditions. Other reviewers recognize Spybuck as an Indian artist who is a recorder and preserver of traditional practices in the midst of social change.
In Spybuck's life, works by Native American artists were beginning to become exhibited as art rather than ethnographic specimens. Shared Visions: Native American Painters and Sculptors in the Twentieth Century was an exhibit that opened at the Heard Museum
Heard Museum
The Heard Museum of Native Cultures and Art is a museum located in Phoenix, Arizona, USA. There is also the Heard Museum North Scottsdale branch in Scottsdale and the Heard Museum West branch in Surprise....
, Phoenix, Arizona
Phoenix, Arizona
Phoenix is the capital, and largest city, of the U.S. state of Arizona, as well as the sixth most populated city in the United States. Phoenix is home to 1,445,632 people according to the official 2010 U.S. Census Bureau data...
in 1991 and then toured to four major museums in the United States. The exhibition brought together three generations of artists to trace the history of the Native American Fine Art Movement. Together with Arapaho
Arapaho
The Arapaho are a tribe of Native Americans historically living on the eastern plains of Colorado and Wyoming. They were close allies of the Cheyenne tribe and loosely aligned with the Sioux. Arapaho is an Algonquian language closely related to Gros Ventre, whose people are seen as an early...
artist Carl Sweezy
Carl Sweezy
Carl Sweezy was a Southern Arapaho painter from Oklahoma. He painted individual portraits, but was best known for his portrayals of ceremonies and dances.-Background:...
, the exhibit placed Spybuck in the earliest stage of the movement, Early Narrative Style, in which Native artists documented the upheavals in Indian Country
Indian Country
Indian country is a term used to describe the many self-governing Native American communities throughout the United States. This usage is reflected in many places, both legal and colloquial...
in the late 19th century and early 20th century. They adopted and adapted western techniques of art and ethnography to produce works that documented the transformation of traditional ways under the restrictions of reservation
Indian reservation
An American Indian reservation is an area of land managed by a Native American tribe under the United States Department of the Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs...
life.
Later life
Spybuck worked as a farmer, painter, and historical informant. He belonged to a large and influential family within the Absentee Shawnee Nation where he was an active member of the community and became a Peyote leader when the Native American ChurchNative American Church
Native American Church, a religious denomination which practices Peyotism or the Peyote religion, originated in the U.S. state of Oklahoma, and is the most widespread indigenous religion among Native Americans in the United States...
was first adopted by Shawnee people. He died in 1949 at the age of 66 and was buried in a family plot near his home.
It has been noted that by his mid-50s he had never left the county of his birth. In addition to having his art published in many books on American Indian cultures, several museums purchased his work for their collections. He was commissioned to produce murals for the Creek Indian Council House and Museum
Creek National Capitol
Creek National Capitol, also known as Creek Council House, is a building in downtown Okmulgee, Oklahoma. It was capitol of the Muscogee Nation nation from 1878 to 1907, when Oklahoma became a state. In 1919 the U.S...
in Okmulgee, Oklahoma
Okmulgee, Oklahoma
Okmulgee is a city in Okmulgee County, Oklahoma, United States. The population at the 2010 census was 12,321 a loss of 5.4 percent since the 2000 census figure of 13,022. It has been the capital of the Muscogee Nation since the United States Civil War. Okmulgee means "boiling waters" in the Creek...
and at the Oklahoma Historical Society Museum
Oklahoma Historical Society
The Oklahoma Historical Society is an agency of the government of Oklahoma dedicated to promotion and preservation of Oklahoma's history and its people by collecting, interpreting, and disseminating knowledge and artifacts of Oklahoma....
in Oklahoma City
Oklahoma city
Oklahoma City is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Oklahoma.Oklahoma City may also refer to:*Oklahoma City metropolitan area*Downtown Oklahoma City*Uptown Oklahoma City*Oklahoma City bombing*Oklahoma City National Memorial...
. During his life his work was exhibited at the Museum of the American Indian in New York City and at the American Indian Exposition and Congress in Tulsa, Oklahoma
Tulsa, Oklahoma
Tulsa is the second-largest city in the state of Oklahoma and 46th-largest city in the United States. With a population of 391,906 as of the 2010 census, it is the principal municipality of the Tulsa Metropolitan Area, a region with 937,478 residents in the MSA and 988,454 in the CSA. Tulsa's...
.
Major exhibitions
- Shawnee Home Life: The Paintings of Earnest Spybuck
- Opened at the Museum of the American Indian, New York, New York in 1987, then toured to several museums, including
- The Oklahoma Historical SocietyOklahoma Historical SocietyThe Oklahoma Historical Society is an agency of the government of Oklahoma dedicated to promotion and preservation of Oklahoma's history and its people by collecting, interpreting, and disseminating knowledge and artifacts of Oklahoma....
Museum, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma - Bacone CollegeBacone CollegeBacone College is a private four-year liberal arts college in Muskogee, Oklahoma. Founded in 1880 as the Indian University by Almon C. Bacone, Bacone College is the oldest continuously operated institution of higher education in Oklahoma...
Museum, Muskogee, Oklahoma
- The Oklahoma Historical Society
- Shared Visions: Native American Painter and Sculptors in the Twentieth Century
- Opened at the Heard MuseumHeard MuseumThe Heard Museum of Native Cultures and Art is a museum located in Phoenix, Arizona, USA. There is also the Heard Museum North Scottsdale branch in Scottsdale and the Heard Museum West branch in Surprise....
, Phoenix, Arizona, on April 13, 1991, then toured to- The Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art, Indianapolis, Indiana
- The Thomas Gilcrease Institute of American History and ArtGilcrease MuseumGilcrease Museum is a museum located northwest of downtown Tulsa, Oklahoma. The museum now houses the world's largest, most comprehensive collection of art of the American West as well as a growing collection of art and artifacts from Central and South America...
, Tulsa, Oklahoma - The Oregon Art Institute, Portland Art MuseumPortland Art MuseumThe Portland Art Museum in Portland, Oregon, United States, was founded in 1892, making it the oldest art museum on the West Coast and seventh oldest in the United States. Upon completion of the most recent renovations, the Portland Art Museum became one of the twenty-five largest art museums in...
, Portland, Oregon - The National Museum of the American IndianNational Museum of the American IndianThe National Museum of the American Indian is a museum operated under the auspices of the Smithsonian Institution that is dedicated to the life, languages, literature, history, and arts of the native Americans of the Western Hemisphere...
, Smithsonian Institution, The U.S. Custom House, New York, New York
Collections
- National Museum of the American IndianNational Museum of the American IndianThe National Museum of the American Indian is a museum operated under the auspices of the Smithsonian Institution that is dedicated to the life, languages, literature, history, and arts of the native Americans of the Western Hemisphere...
, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D. C. - Gilcrease MuseumGilcrease MuseumGilcrease Museum is a museum located northwest of downtown Tulsa, Oklahoma. The museum now houses the world's largest, most comprehensive collection of art of the American West as well as a growing collection of art and artifacts from Central and South America...
, Tulsa, Oklahoma - Heard MuseumHeard MuseumThe Heard Museum of Native Cultures and Art is a museum located in Phoenix, Arizona, USA. There is also the Heard Museum North Scottsdale branch in Scottsdale and the Heard Museum West branch in Surprise....
, Phoenix, Arizona - Oklahoma Historical Society MuseumOklahoma Historical SocietyThe Oklahoma Historical Society is an agency of the government of Oklahoma dedicated to promotion and preservation of Oklahoma's history and its people by collecting, interpreting, and disseminating knowledge and artifacts of Oklahoma....
, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma - Fred Jones Jr. Museum of ArtFred Jones Jr. Museum of ArtThe Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art is an art museum on the University of Oklahoma campus in Norman, Oklahoma.-Overview:The University of Oklahoma’s Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art is one of the finest university art museums in the United States. Strengths of the nearly 16,000-object permanent collection...
, Norman, Oklahoma