Richard Ray Whitman (born 1949) is a Yuchi/Muscogee multidisciplinary visual artist, poet, and actor. He is enrolled in the Muscogee Nation and lives in Oklahoma.Lester, 619Lippard, 216
Early life and education Whitman was born in Claremore, Oklahoma, in 1949.Vigil, Jennifer C. "Richard Ray Whitman." Museum of Contemporary Native Arts: Vision Project. (retrieved 10 May 2011) His maternal grandmother was Polly Long. Like many Yuchis, Whitman is enrolled in the Muscogee Nation.Abbott, Larry. Richard Ray Whitman, Yuchi. A Time of Visions. (retrieved 25 August 2009) He grew up in Gypsy, Oklahoma, and attended Bristow High School. He also attended the Institute of American Indian Arts, the California Institute of the Arts, and the Oklahoma School of Photography in Oklahoma City.
Career Whitman began his art career as a painter and expanded to photography, installation, and video art. In 1973, he participated in the 71-day occupation of Wounded Knee and created art during the occupation.
Photography Whitman is known for his black-and-white photography portraying contemporary Native realities, especially his "Street Chiefs Series" from the 1970s and 1980s. "Street Chiefs" features images of homeless Native men, primarily in downtown Oklahoma City. "The contemporary Indian in the isolation of the city canyons and rural reservations is avoided. The boredom, pain, frustration, poverty of the reality-counterbalance of our lives is harsh, unattractive, and unmarketable." His photographic portraits are compassionate and empathetic to the lives of homeless natives and places them in the larger context of Indian Removal, which forced tribes from all over the country to Indian Territory.
From the 1980s onward, Whitman has incorporated text and computer graphics in his photography to create collage or mixed media. His socio-politically informed work often deals with the issues of homeland and dispossession.
Videography and acting career Collaborating with Yuchi poet and brother Joe Dale Tate Nevaquaya, Whitman created video to document the Yuchi language. Together they worked with French filmmaker Pierre Lobstein in the 1990s. Whitman read T.C. Cannon's poetry in the video "Mazerunner: The Life and Art of T.C. Cannon" which was directed and edited by Phillip Albert. This work was subsequently screened at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (3/19/1994) and was presented on the Bravo Cable Channel and the Independent Film Channel from May, 1995 through June, 1996.
Filmography
Film +YearTitleRoleNotes1988War PartyHarold2003American Indian Graffiti: This Thing LifeBarry2006RuneTecpatel2007Four Sheets to the WindFrankie Smallhill2007Missionary ManChief Dan2009The Only Good IndianFather of stolen child2009Barking WaterFrankie2013Winter in the BloodJohn First Raise2013The Cherokee Word for WaterRoger2014Drunktown's FinestHarmon, John2016Neither Wolf Nor DogGrover2021Oklahoma Mon AmourLloyd2021Montford: The Chickasaw RancherJoe Carlton2022The Unknown CountryGrandpa August 2024 Jazzy Grandpa August
Television YearTitleRoleNotes1994Lakota Woman: Siege at Wounded KneeCarter CampTelevision film2019ChambersHarrison Yazzie3 episodes2021–2022Reservation DogsOld Man Fixico5 episodes
See also List of Native American artists Visual arts by indigenous peoples of the Americas
References
Further reading Lester, Patrick D. The Biographical Directory of Native American Painters. Norman: Oklahoma University Press, 1995. . Lippard, Lucy. Mixed Blessings: New Art in a Multicultural America. New York: The New Press, 2000. .
External links Profile and contact info through the Oklahoma Arts Council Interview with Richard Ray Whitman by Larry Abbott Native Networks biography, National Museum of the American Indian Oral History Interview with Richard Whitman at the Oklahoma Native Artists Oral History Project