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Charles Ware / Jim Lacy Red Corn

Essay/Description

Osage artist Jim Lacy Red Corn comes from a family of renowned artists, including his uncles Wakon Iron and Raymond Redcorn. Red Corn’s Indigenous heritage and cultural upbringing influenced his aesthetic choices, particularly his selection of subjects, and his artwork created a visual narrative of the Osage world he was raised in as a child and remained committed to throughout his life. This 1973 watercolor is an example of the artist’s late-career style. Red Corn, through his detailed portrait of Charles Ware, an Osage man, illuminates his deep affinity for and profound connection to the I’n-Lon-Schka, an Osage ceremonial dance held during the month of June.

“He was devoted to painting Osage scenes of life . . . his art goes within the spaces that words fail. The visual language became a space and a place where [art] connects us to the past, and how the past informs us today. These paintings are based on his understanding and his lived experience, as well as the experiences of influential people in his life such as his Uncle Wakon Iron.”
—Marla Redcorn, January 19, 2021

—Jordan Poorman Cocker, Henry Luce Foundation Curatorial Scholar for Indigenous Painting Collection Research, 2021

This text was developed from an interview with Talee Redcorn and Marla Redcorn, children of Jim Red Corn, by Jordan Poorman Cocker, January 19, 2021

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Title(s): 
Charles Ware; Charles Ware Osage Indian
Creator(s): 
Jim Lacy Red Corn (Artist)
Culture: 
Native American; Osage
Date: 
1973
Materials/Techniques: 
watercolor on paper
Paper/Support: 
Portrait; single-sided 0.461-0.471mm white watercolor, cold pressed paper. Even distribution of fibers in transmitted light.
Classification: 
Object Type: 
Credit Line: 
Purchased with funds gifted by the Frankie Van Johnson Fund
Accession No: 
02.1939
Previous Number(s): 
TL 1997.80; 0227.1939; TL1997.80; 17666
Department: 
Not On View

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