Casting a light on Comanches
This post is contributed by Erin Shanahan, External Affairs Coordinator, at the Bullock Texas State History Museum.
As a non-native Texan (Originally from San Diego, try not to judge!) and one of the newest members of staff at the Bullock Museum, I was given the opportunity to meet the artist behind Comanche Motion: The Art of Eric Tippeconnic.
The experience helped me better understand one of my favorite exhibitions.
To understand the meaning behind Comanche Motion: The Art of Eric Tippeconnic, first close your eyes and picture an American Indian.
What do they look like? What are they wearing?
When picturing Comanche Indians, I, like many people, first imagined native men and women how they are so often depicted in film and television.
Eric Tippeconnic, the artist and historian behind the exhibition Comanche Motion: The Art of Eric Tippeconnic, is challenging these stereotypes of what today’s Indians look like. His paintings, while still keeping traditional Comanche elements, incorporate bold colors and styles fit for the contemporary 21st Century.
“Some people who collect Indian art will look at a traditional piece and that’s the image that they’re comfortable with, because that’s the image that’s always portrayed, and Hollywood has done a great job doing that,” Eric said.
Stepping onto the sweeping third floor rotunda of the Museum, many of Eric’s works of art grabbed my attention because of his fearless use of glowing yellow and vibrant red. For example, the painting of a Comanche woman wearing sleek modern attire as if she is going to a trendy corporate office.
“When seeing something modern, like the Comanche woman in modern attire, collectors either get it and they love it, or they think ‘what is she doing in that?’,” Eric said. “Or they’ll see a man in a headdress and a suit, and they’ll chuckle and think ‘that doesn’t go together…’ and I’ll go, yeah it does! I see those all the time!”
Eric Tippeconnic is a professor at three California State Universities and he holds a PhD in History from the University of New Mexico. As we walk around the rotunda to the tunes of his fun and up-tempo painting playlist, Eric tells me that while Comanches continue to honor their history and culture, they are also an evolving people who are participating in today’s society. He goes on to tell me of his many family members who are also successful academics, artists or business leaders, including his Uncle David Tippeconnic who is a former CEO of CITGO petroleum.
“We (Comanches) teach history at a university, we’re lawyers, doctors, garbage men and everything else,” Eric said.
Eric, whose father is Comanche and mother is Danish, spent his youth living on reservations throughout the United States in Alaska, Arizona, California, and New Mexico. He also spent many summers with his father’s Comanche side of the family in Oklahoma.
“Other artists would come into our lives and we would have visits from a lot of people. In Indian country everybody is an artist of some kind,” Eric said. “I would be mesmerized by them, and they would always end up giving me paintings… I have this great collection of some old artists. Some of them have passed on now but certainly that was a big part of my influence.”
Eric recently returned to Oklahoma City after being selected to paint a mural commissioned by the Exhibit C art gallery from a field of hundreds of applicants. And in the small town of Colony, Oklahoma, a member of the Oklahoma State Supreme Court and friend of Eric, granted him the chance to paint a 72-foot-long mural on a historic building that is a century old.
The experience has been a new challenge for Eric, as he had to spend days preparing and priming the surface of the walls before he could even begin painting.
Comanche Motion was chosen by Eric as the title of the Bullock Museum exhibition because motion is evident in all of his paintings and best describes what is being shown through his artistic style. The movement in Comanche Motion is also a tribute to the way in which Comanche people are continuing to move forward and engage with the modern world. The message being portrayed in Comanche Motion: The Art of Eric Tippeconnic is not just one of the Comanche people.
It is a message, Eric says, that can be applied to hundreds of different nations and indigenous people that reside in North America from the United States to Canada.
“I wish more people would take the time to talk to Indian people about who they are and what their history is — whether that’s going to a reservation, or to a dance, or powwow, or ceremony and talking to people,” Eric said.
Eric, who absorbed many Comanche traditions and teachings from his family, recommends that Texans who are interested in discovering more about Comanche culture visit the Comanche National Museum and Cultural Center, the nation’s official museum that covers art, history and culture, which is not far away in Oklahoma.
Comanche Motion is an important opportunity for Comanches, Eric believes, because it paves the way for other Comanche people to have their contributions to the arts and society shown to the public on a national level. Such opportunities are vital, he says, for Comanches to break into the mainstream, to be seen and have their voices heard.
“There are many different young Comanches doing amazing things in different professions and different parts of academia,” Eric said. “It (Comanche Motion: The Art of Eric Tippeconnic) is just an incredible opportunity, and I hope it opens up doors for people.”
Comanche Motion: The Art of Eric Tippeconnic is on view at the Bullock Museum from April 14, 2018-January 2, 2019.
Support for the Bullock Museum’s exhibitions and education programs is provided by the Texas State History Museum Foundation.
