TC Cannon's Creative Engagement

The early 20th century modernist artists were greatly influenced by tribal and indigenous art. So it's compelling when a Native American like TC Cannon, a Vietnam vet who died too young in a car crash at age 31 in 1978, engages with their influence on his own terms and creates vivid, compelling art. When the inhabitants of the European tradition incorporate tribal or other elements of the disenfranchised it's often criticized as cultural appropriation. But, if I understand, when the reverse happens it's not called reverse appropriation but creative engagement with the dominant culture. Not sure how important the labeling is. Personally, I prefer the framework of cosmopolitanism, where everyone should be encouraged to engage creatively with any kind of difference. And it's not just a city thing, an elite affectation. Rural southern whites definitely worked the African banjo right into their expression.

One notable thing about TC Cannon is how he worked with the legacy of Matisse, as evidenced so well in the top painting and in his self portrait. There's the exciting color combinations; the slight abstraction achieved through flattening, and the attendant play of clear forms; the decorative aspect that is nevertheless never shallow or silly. The self portrait even includes two pieces on the wall suggestive of this dynamic, with one clearly tribal piece set below a piece that looks like a signature work of those early 20th century Europeans. It might even be a direct quote/reference, but can't quite put my finger on it at the moment. The major (ironically?) decorative aspect is the natural world. As for the bottom image, what a piece of poetry, to place the "Anadarko Princess" at a bus stop. Cannon has been in the news the last few months for a show that debuted at the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Mass., which is now at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian in New York.